Naruto: The Uzumaki & Namikaze's Legacy
by Minato4Yellowflash
Summary: On an attack on Naruto's 4th birthday, he flees the village with the Kyubi's help. What will Naruto's new life be like? Will he be able to find a purpose for his life, even with everything he's gone through? An extract from the story: "F-Father!" femkyu
1. Chapter 1

Hey, everyone! At last I got a mac, so now I can post my stories! (Before I only had the iPad, but sadly it doesn't have a flash player…)

And this is my first fanfic I've ever made, so I'm not too sure of my abilities in writing. But I do have the will of writing shining brightly in me, so I hope I can please you guys!

I LOVE NARUTO!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Though, I wish I did. I only own fishcakes. *sighs*

Anyway, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

**"Kit!" Demon speaking. **

_**'soon, Naruto.' **_** Demon thoughts.**

"Hey!" Human speaking.

_'Hey!' __Human thoughts._

_Thunk._

In a cave. Regular writing, duh!

_**"**_**Ninpou:"**_** Jutsu. **_

And so now, without further a do, on with the story! And please review! Remember, it's my first fanfic!

* * *

**The Night**

'Huff, huff, wheeze, wheeze." A ragged young blond boy ran around the corner and panted heavily, out of breath.

Today was October 10th, the day of the Kyubi festival. It was also young Naruto's fourth birthday.

And it was the day that he always dreaded.

The villagers actions got worse, and sometimes it went too far.

Like today. It had happened once before, too. That was on his second birthday.

Since he was so little back then, he hadn't remembered it much clearly.

But he knew that it had hurt. A lot.

Everything hurt, and he didn't know why. And so he cried. He cried, until the pain stopped.

When the pain stopped, he found himself in a small white room. And Sarutobi-jiji was there, at his side looking very worried. He had black bags under his eyes, and he had looked so haggard, as if he hadn't had slept in a long time. When he woke up, his face brightened and he looked so happy.

Naruto had never seen so much happiness in the old man's eyes. He remembered so clearly about that time. Jiji had said that some bad guys attacked him by mistake.

And he said sorry. When Naruto had asked where he was, Jiji said that he was in a place called a hospital.

But now, running away from the angry and drunken mobs, he knew that they weren't attacking my mistake. They were doing it on purpose, wanting so badly to hurt him.

And he knew that these people were the same kind as the ones that assaulted him. He didn't remember the people, but he just knew. Was it instinct?

But it wasn't time to think about that.

The sounds of the angry mob got closer.

"He went this way!" "Get him!" "That demon scum!"

Naruto whimpered fearfully. He didn't know why these drunken mobs were going after him. And he definitely didn't know why they were calling him 'Demon'.

He didn't want to get caught. But he knew that it was inevitable fate. Back then, they got him. And this time, they will, too.

He didn't know how. But he just did know.

It was over.

But never the less, the young boy ran, doing his best to get away.

And he stopped when he came to dead end.

He started to cry silently as he turned his back against the wall, backing up step by step as the drunken mob approached.

They grinned madly as they towered across the young boy and raised their weapons, or what ever they had in hand. Some held broken beer bottles but there were the others, the professionals-he knew they were shinobi- that held kunais and ninjato.

And they stepped forward.

"No! Stop! Why are you doing this? Please stop!"

Naruto cried out, river of hot tears streaming across his whiskered cheeks as he backed a few steps.

_Thud._

His back hit the cold, bare wall.

"Oh, so you're begging for mercy now?" One woman sneered. Then her voice turned into a high pitched scream.

"When you've killed all my loved ones, do you think we will spare you?" She yelled.

A shinobi dressed in chuunin uniform stepped out.

"There's no where to run, demon! You will die today, and then we will be praised as heroes for killing you!"

He hissed, voice filled with malice.

He then threw a sharp kunai straight at him.

It grazed his shoulder, and Naruto cried out in pain, clutching his right shoulder with his other arm.

Then as if on cue, the mob attacked.

They threw punches and kicks at him, while the shinobi embedded him with shuriken. He curled up in a tight ball, doing his best to shield his head.

One slashed his ninjato at his stomach, making Naruto scream in agony as he crumpled against the wall.

After a few more assaults, the mob, finally satisfied, drew back.

Then the one who seemed to be the leader said something to a shinobi next to him, while the addressed man nodded.

He went through a series of hand signs, then brought his hand upon his lips and inhaled deeply,

**"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu; Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"**

A gigantic ball of fire shot out of the man's mouth as he exhaled and headed straight towards the unmoving body of the blonde.

The mob broke off into wide grins, knowing that the Demon was finished for good as they clapped themselves on their backs and left the area.

The fire engulfed the boy.

Naruto had no strength left enough to scream, as his face controlled into agony, his mouth opened in a silent scream.

It hurt like hell.

As the fire continued to burn the his skin, Naruto felt his eyes closing.

_"So I die here, like this…"_ He was surprisingly calm when he thought and a small smile creeped into his face.

Maybe it was better off like this, with him dead?

Then the villagers would be able to smile.

They never smiled at his presence. They just looked at him with _those eyes_.

Always whispering and pointing at him.

All his life he had been unloved and unwanted, except for Jiji and a few ANBU.

All his life, the short life of 4 years…he struggled and craved for affections and acknowledgement.

Shops ran him out just for being there.

The majority shot him harsh glares or pay him no attention as he was an unwanted animal that should have been erased.

Parents pulled their children away from him and yelled at him to stay away from them and their families while telling the children to keep away from him all together.

It was the same at the orphanage, too. The other children shot hateful looks at him, following the actions of the grown-ups.

They never allowed him to play together. They all laid their mistakes on him, and the care-takers believed it willingly, glad for an excuse to punish him.

He had seen that one time, when one of the care-takers gave a kid his same age a cookie for bullying him as a reward.

Many nights alone Naruto spent crying and brawling not knowing why or what he did to deserve the bitter life he was forced to live through.

He continued to smile sadly as he thought, _"Jiji should be here soon…I wish I could have said goodbye to jiji and Kakashi-nii…I hope they won't be too sad…"_

Then, all of a sudden, he heard a deep growl, booming inside his head.

His eyes widened as he heard what the voice said,** "I will heal your body and vanish the flames now, so don't ever think of dying."**

The voice gradually got smaller, **"Now run, kit. Run away from here, and don't ever stop…"**

When the voice vanished, Naruto found himself to be miraculously fully healed without a single scratch, and sure enough, the flames had died out.

But Naruto did not pay any heed to it, he could only think about those words, playing over and over inside his head.

_'Run, run, run…'_

His body seemed to move on it's own accord, as Naruto stood up on shaky legs and began to run.

It didn't matter where he was going.

He had enough.

He would do as this mysterious voice inside of him told him to. He didn't have a reason to live his life anymore.

He wanted to die so badly, yet somehow something inside of him wanted to trust this voice.

If he stayed in the village, he knew that sooner or later, he would surely die.

And he knew that the voice won't save him a second time.

But maybe, just maybe, if he followed this voice, he might find something.

Maybe a reason to live. A reason for his purpose.

So Naruto ran.

He staggered blindly, stumbling across the pebbles in the way.

Luckily, the guards were asleep, snoring away lazily, and so Naruto took this chance as he dashed to the gates.

Unfortunately, they were closed, but somehow Naruto found some strength to push in ajar slightly, just a small bit in order to slip out.

Even when he made it safely out the gates, he continued to run.

He was afraid that if he stopped, he would lose everything.

And so, he ran…

* * *

How was that? I hope you liked it! Next chapter will be out soon, after I finish typing the words in, so probably tomorrow. And by the way, the part of "all his life he had been…" comes from another writer. I thought that the sentence was good, so i got it from him\her and tweaked it a bit…sorry.

Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey, everyone! I'm back!

**"Kit!" Demon speaking. **

_**'soon, Naruto.' **_** Demon thoughts.**

"Hey!" Human speaking.

_'Hey!' __Human thoughts._

_Thunk._

In a cave. Regular writing, duh!

_**"**_**Ninpou:"**_** Jutsu. **_

Anyway, here's the next chapter.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Meeting With Kurou**

Naruto woke up to find himself in a dark sewer.

**"Naruto…come to me…"** A raspy voice echoed in the water-dripping corridor.

Naruto, bewildered, followed the voice and found himself in front of a gigantic cage that stretched out from the bottom to the top, with a weird paper on it.

"Huh?" Naruto cocked his head in confusion.

"Where am I?" And what is this cage?" He wondered out loud.

Then all of a sudden, with a whoosh, something big with bloody red eyes and large sharp teeth appeared inside the cage.

Naruto, surprised, stumbled back in fright.

Then the thing opened up its large mouth, showing rows of sharp white teeth, and let out low growl.

**"Good job, kit. For making it here, that is," **it spoke**, "Now-"**

The thing's voice was abruptly cut off when Naruto opened his mouth wide in recognition.

"Y-you're that v-voice! You're the one that helped me!"

**"Of course it is, boy,"** The thing let out an exasperated sigh.

"A-and, who are you? Why did you help me?" Naruto asked, something he had been dying to find out.

The thing grinned wide, and said in it's regularly loud voice, **"I am the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox!"**

There was bit of proudness in it's voice, and Naruto caught it.

"Wow!" He breathed, "You're the Kyubi!"

**"Yes." **Kyubi replied, and then leaned forward to ask the boy, **"Why aren't you afraid of me, kit? When most people see me, they would be afraid. I'm the one that killed all those flesh bags in that night of October 10th."**

Naruto looked up at the Kyubi, and smiled. "Why should I be afraid of you? You're the one that helped me, after all. I'm grateful to you."

The Kyubi, hearing the words coming out of the boys mouth, opened his eyes wide in surprise, and then amusement.

She chuckled, and said, **"I think that you and I are just going to get along fine." **

Then, she looked at the tiny form of Naruto and said, **"Do you want to see my tails?"**

She laughed again when Naruto replied, jumping up and down enthusiastically, "Yes! I wanna see your 9 tails!"

**"Sure, kit." **True to his words, the Kyubi got up and turned around in the cage, showing her back to Naruto.

And sure enough, there were 9 mighty big orange-colored tails, resting on the wet floor.

He swished them around a bit, causing Naruto to squeal in delight. "Awesome!"

Then he asked the Kyubi who turned around again, "Can I touch them?"

Kyubi froze, hearing this, and then uttered a quick,** "No!"**

"Why not?" Naruto asked, a bit disappointed.

Kyubi saw Naruto's forlorn face and replied quickly like before, "Because it isn't the time to do so We have much to discuss."

_'Because I can't interact with humans. I am the Kyubi no Kitsune, hater of all humans…I just can't…'_

Kyubi didn't know why these thoughts were affecting him. Normally, when she saw a human, she would hate them and devour them on the spot if she could.

But with this tiny human before her, she couldn't help but be kind toward him. _'No,'_ She shook her head mentally. I am the mighty Kyubi. There must be something wrong with her.

Then she opened her mouth to speak. **"First of all, I am the Kyubi, but I have a name. It's Kurou. It means 'Ninth son', named by the Rikudou Sennin thousands of years ago-"**

"Wait," Naruto said cutting in, "Who's the Rikudou Sennin?"

Kurou shot a sharp glare at him and growled, **"Don't interrupt me."**

Naruto drew back, startled as he quickly apologized, "Sorry."

**"You'll get your answers later. And as I was saying, I am a female." **

The fact was like a dropped bomb.

"W-what?" Naruto sputtered, "y-you're a girl?"

Kurou rolled her eyes and replied, **"Yes. Are you that surprised that I'm a girl, not a male? Some Bijus don't have sex like that idiot Shukaku, but I do have sex."**

Then, completely ignoring the surprised human in front of her, Kurou said, **"Now, I think that you are starting to get hungry, so when you wake up, cook some raw fish or something and when you've filled your stomach, call out to me. I'd like to have some peace."**

"'Kay."

With that, the sewer began to fade right before his eyes as Naruto lost conscious.

* * *

And that's the end of Chapter 2. How did you guys like it?

Please remember to review; I'm dying to read my first review, please!


	3. Chapter 3

Hello, everyone! I'm back with Chapter 3!

Enjoy! And please remember to review!

**"Kit!" Demon speaking. **

_**'soon, Naruto.' **_** Demon thoughts.**

"Hey!" Human speaking.

_'Hey!' __Human thoughts._

_Thunk._

In a cave. Regular writing, duh!

_**"**_**Ninpou:"**_** Jutsu.**_

* * *

**The New Beginning**

Naruto woke up to see the sunlight shining brightly on his face.

He squinted, trying to adjust his eyes to the bright light as he got up and looked around after shaking dirt off his clothes.

He saw that he was in a forest clearing, probably some miles away from the gates of Konoha.

He quickly remembered that Kurou told him to catch some fish, and so he walked around, looking for a river nearby.

In no time, he found one and wadded into the water, after he threw off his clothes by the rocks, leaving only his green frog boxers on.

The water was freezing, and Naruto yelped as he wadded more deeper.

He shivered, and then gulped as he took a deep breath and ducked underwater.

With some effort, he opened his eyes, and looked around.

Even with his sight all blurry, he was able to make out some shapes of silver and gray colored fish.

He tired to grab them, but all the fish that he tried to catch slipped out of his small hands.

Frustrated and needing some fresh air, Naruto went up and splashed out of the water, his head bobbing near the surface.

He swam to the shore and climbed out, and then sat down on the pebbles covering the ground.

"ha…" Naruto gave out a sigh, as he mentally shouted, "Why can't I catch those dumb fishes?"

Then suddenly, a familiar voice roared inside his head.

**"KEEP IT QUIET! I want some peace here!"**

"Oh, sorry, Kurou," Naruto muttered an apology, "But can you help me out? I just can't catch these fish. They just keep escaping!"

**"Fine." **Kurou snapped, then her voice turned soft.

**"It's because you aren't careful when doing so. You have to wait patiently and quietly; if the fish senses your presence, it's all over. **

**And you'll also need some sort of sharp knife to pin them on the spot."**

"Oh," Naruto said then replied glumly, "But I don't have a sharp tool."

**"A kunai? Shuriken? Not even a senbon?" **

Kyubi asked incredulously, and got a _no_ for each.

**"Oh, fine."** She replied, **"We'll just have to make one then." **

"Make one?" Now it was Naruto's turn to be incredulous. "How?"

**"You'll see."** Kurou replied smugly, **"just get several slabs of medium sized rocks."**

Naruto, having no idea what Kurou was planning, did as he was told.

He got several rocks, and called out to Kurou, "I got them!"

**"Okay, then."** Kurou said, **"I'm going to gather up some of my fire chakra in your lungs, so breath deeply and exhale a steady stream of fire. Use that fire to make a kunai-like shape, and remember, sharp edges! Oh by the way, if you're scared that the fire will burn you, no worries, because my fire can't hurt you_._ It's harmless, just heat. For you, it is, anyway. So, here we go!"**

And with that, Kurou did what she said; she channeled some of hes demonic youki and bended it to a fire release, while Naruto did as he was told.

He took a deep breath, just like he had seen the shinobi who put him on fire did, and exhaled it out in a small, but steady stream of blueish red fire.

Then, moving his head, he traced the flames across the edges of the rock held in his hand, and started making the weapons.

A few minutes later, they were all finished in good quality, much to Naruto's awe, and the Kyubi smirked.

**"See? Ready to use it?"**

Naruto bobbled his head viciously, and then silently waded into the waters, and waited patiently, unmoving.

Just as Naruto was beginning to lose concentration, a fish swam by, showing off his silverly scales that glinted brightly against the sun.

_'Yes!' _Naruto punched his arm up in victory, mentally of course, and then poised his make-shift kunai ready as he flung it down, nailing the unknowing fish head on.

_'All right! One down!' _Naruto grinned a fox-like grin as he flung the fish to the rocks nearby where his clothes sat.

Naruto, careful to not make any ripples in the water, turned back into his unmoving position and waited for the next fish to come.

This continued for a few more times, and when Naruto caught the 3rd fish, he started to go back to the shore.

He then sat down on the shore to bathe sunlight, hoping that the warmth of the sun would dry off his body.

After about 5 minutes of cooling in the sun, his body dried up and Naruto pulled his clothes on.

He got up and bundled up the fish, then headed back to the clearing.

When he got there, he made a small campfire using some of the broken branches and logs lying on the forest floor and with Kurou's help, he lit the fire, using the same method as last time.

Only this time, the fire was more like a small fireball then the jet-like fire.

Naruto stuck the fish through sticks, and propped them on the dirt, roasting them quite nicely.

When they were ready, Naruto grabbed the sticks one by one and started to devour them quickly.

He was very hungry, after all.

When he finished his quite decent meal, he called out the Kyubi.

"Hey, Kurou! I'm ready! Take me to the sewer!"

**"All right," **came a reply, **"Now this time you're coming here yourself. So cross your legs in the criss-cross-apple sauce style and meditate. Relax, and stay unmoving. When you close your eyes, you'll find yourself in here."**

Naruto did as instructed, and then woke up to find himself inside the dripping corridor.

"Cool!" He grinned, and skipped happily to the cage.

When he came upon the cage, he immediately called out, "Kurou?"

**"Yes, I'm here, kit." **Kurou appeared inside the the cage.

**"Now sit down, and I'll tell you a story. You'll get your answers, soon enough." **

Naruto obediently sat down in a comfortable position, and replied, "I'm ready."

* * *

How was that? I hope you enjoyed it.

Anyway, until next time!

Please remember to REVIEW! I've written three chaps and I still haven't gotten a review! PLEASE!


	4. Chapter 4

Hey, everyone!

**"Kit!" Demon speaking. **

_**'Soon, Naruto.' **_** Demon thoughts.**

"Hey!" Human speaking.

_'Hey!' __Human thoughts._

_Thunk._

…In a cave. Regular writing, duh!

_**"**_**Ninpou:"**_** Jutsu. **_

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Anyway, here's the next chapter.

Enjoy! And Please remember to review!

* * *

**Answers**

**"All right, I will tell you why I'm inside you, being able to talk like this," **the Kyubi started, **"Well, you see, it is because of this-"**

She pointed a claw at the paper stuck on the cage.

"Fuuin; seal?" Naruto asked, reading the kanji written on it.

**"Yes. Because of this seal, I'm sealed inside you stomach. So basically, I live inside of you. In this cage, that is." **

She said, **"Lift up your shirt and watch. I'm going to channel some of my youki in you like before." **

"uh, okay?"

With Naruto's response, the Kyubi did what she said, and sure enough, a swirl-like seal appeared on his stomach.

Naruto stared at it in wonder. "Wow!" He breathed, "Wow."

**"Now,"** the Kyubi said as she made the youki disappear; making Naruto's stomach like before.

**"I'm going to tell you why I'm sealed in your stomach," **she started,

**"It all began on the night of the Kyubi Attack, on October 10th, 4 years ago. Uzumaki Kushina, who was the Kyubi host at that time was married to Namikaze Minato."**

The Nine-tailed vixen paused, letting the information sink in.

Naruto's eyes widened at the news, "Wait, so you're saying that the Fourth Hokage was married to this other woman? I never knew that!"

**"Yes, it is indeed true." **Kurou replied, **"This is considered as an S-ranked secret, too. No one knows about this except for a few people." **

"…And this woman was the your host before me?"

**"Yes." **

"But why does this matter to me? It's not like I'm close to them or anything." Naruto inquired, puzzled.

The Kyubi answered to this in a deep chuckle. **"How about this? Naruto Uzumaki, or should I say, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze?"**

"Huh? Why do I have the same surnames as the Yondaime and his wife?" Naruto cocked his head in confusion.

"Unless…" Naruto's eyes opened wide, and his mouth dropped a jar in shock when realization struck him.

**"Yes…" **The Nine-tailed fox hissed, **"You are their son! You are Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, son of the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, aka The Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Kushina, the heir of Uzugakure no Sato!" **

The last part came out in a growl.

**"And you're of royal blood, too, you know. The last living heir of the Uzumaki Clan and the Namikaze Clan." **

Kurou added humorously.

"B-But…I j-just don't get it!" Naruto sputtered, "I'm just a clan-less orphan who's hated by everyone! I-I can't be the son of the great Yondaime!"

**"Well, you are, so be glad. And the reason that the villagers don't know is because the Hokage is keeping it a secret. **

**His and your father's reasoning for all this secrecy is because they feared that if they find out that you are the Yondaime's son, many kidnappers and assassins would come after you, hoping to end the Namikaze blood for good. **

**Especially Iwa, you know. You're father made lots of enemies during the Third Shinobi War."**

The Nine-tailed demon snorted.

**"And those pathetic villagers…they can't see the difference between you and me!" **

She spat,

**"Really! How dumb can they get? Imagine how they'll react if they found out about your legacy! Maybe one flesh bag might go crazy and actually perform seppuku!"**

Kurou laughed in a deep rumbling voice that reminded Naruto of thunder.

**"And so, let me tell you the truth about that fateful day, when the Yondaime sacrificed himself for his village." **

The Kyubi said and chuckled,

**"Why do humans sacrifice themselves for the sake of the others? Really idiotic, if you ask me."**

"…" Naruto, who heard the insult, didn't now how to reply. Something told him that the Yondaime, or rather, his _father_was a hero for saving the village at the cost of his own life, but something also told him that father shouldn't have saved the village.

Sure, some people like Kakashi-nii and the Hokage loved him, but…he didn't know who to trust anymore. The Hokage lied to him, and surely there must be more uncovered lies?

And the villagers…they hated him. They were bad people as far as Naruto was concerned. And he wondered, why father had to sacrifice himself for a no-good village?

He pondered for a while, but was cut off when Kurou spoke, **"Now Naruto, listen to what I'm going to tell you. You know about the Kyubi Attack on your birthday, right?" **

"Yeah, but It's not 100 percent true, right?"

**"Yes. Now I'm going to tell you the truth. The real story behind the Kyubi Attack," **the Kyubi said, **"and this might take a long time, so get comfortable, all right?" **

Naruto eased himself into a relaxing position as he looked at the Kyubi right at her blood red-slit pupils and after taking a deep breath, he replied, somewhat shakily, "Please start the story."

**"Good. Now, your mother, Kushina was the Kyubi host, or Jinchuriki at that time, like you are right now. I was sealed inside of her. And well, there's a time that the seal holding the bijou weakens." **Kurou said, pausing.

Naruto didn't respond.

**"It is when pregnant mothers give birth. October 10th, when she gave birth to you. **

**She was hidden in the forest with Minato and Biwako, the Sandaime's wife and some nurses along with a dozen of elite ANBU, to make sure that no one could kidnap you, or get a hold of me in my weakened state. **

**But even with all the precautions, someone found out. He was a very powerful shinobi; wearing a hood and an orange swirl mask revealing one right eye. **

**He killed all the guards along with Biwako and the other nurses who were beside Kushina and Minato. **

**Then he took you, the newborn baby as a hostage. **

**Minato was furious, of course, and with his speed, he got you safely back from the masked man. But by then, he had left with Kushina using a a jikuukan ninjutsu; space time-ninjutsu just like Minato. **

**Minato then placed you in a crib, and used the Hiraishin no Jutsu to teleport to Kushina. **

**But when he came beside her, she was in a terrible condition, already having me taken forcefully out of her. It was a miracle that she didn't die there; no other people besides the Uzumakis would be able to survive what she went through."**

Kurou paused, and then started to let out an enormous amount of killing intent.

Naruto, horrified, started to move back a few steps but found that he couldn't. Sweat trickled down his face.

**"It was then!"**

Kurou roared, lashing out her nine tails viciously against the floor.

**"That bastard, the masked man, the cursed Uchiha! He took control of me! When I was free, I was happy a last. But then, that bastard Uchiha used his sharingan and placed me under his rule! **

**He forced me to attack Konoha!" **

The furious demon fox growled dangerously.

"Wait, so you're not behind the attack? The masked Uchiha controlled you and forced you to attack Konoha?"

Naruto blurted out, "Just who is he?"

**"Yes!" **She hissed, **"His name is well known but assumed dead, **_**Madara Uchiha**_**! He's one of the founding fathers of Konoha and comes from the 'high and mighty' Uchiha Clan. **

**That day, he wore an orange swirl mask on."**

"Madara Uchiha?" Naruto asked in surprise, "I heard that name somewhere, but isn't he supposed to be dead? Defeated by the Shodai Hokage at the valley of the end? And I mean, shouldn't he be like _very_ old by now?"

**"Yes. That Madara Uchiha. Though I'm surprised that you knew about that clash. Who told you?"**

Kyubi asked, all her anger lessened, replaced by curiosity.

"Hm? Oh, Sandaime-jiji told me about it one day. He said that it was important."

**"Hm. So that old monkey told you, that explains it."**

Kurou huffed.

**"And back to the topic, yes, that Madara is not dead; he's still alive to this day. And that it precisely why I said, **_'assumed dead'_**.**

**I don't know how he's still live, cheating dead so many times, and I can only assume that he is using an anti-aging jutsu of his own creation.**

**I'd say he's immortal, but in truth, he is not; we bijius are the only beings in the elemental countries that are truly immortal, powerful than man-kind." **

She hissed, clear distaste and hate in her words.

**"Now, let me continue the story," **she hushed Naruto who had just opened his mouth, wanting to speak.

**"So when I was under the **_**Uchiha's**_** control, I started to destroy Konoha. My tails lashed out, destroying and eliminating everyone in the way. **

**I killed hundreds of shinobi; no one stood a chance against me. **

**But then, your father came. He was on top of Gamabunta, his favorite boss summon, standing defiantly. **

**He then teleported me to somewhere else, far away from the walls of Konoha, deep into the forest, and then there, your mother restrained me using her special powers. Arg! Kushina's chakra chains! They were so irritating!" **

She stopped when she realized that she had started to rant on off the topic.

**"Ahem. Anyway, so back to the story…**

**Minato used the Keiyaku Fuuin (Binding Seal Release), which relieved me from Madara's sharingan mind control, but at the same time, he did something idiotic…he used the Shiki Fuujin (Death Reaper Seal) and called out the Shinigami, sealing the my yang chakra into himself and sealing the yin chakra into you with the Dead Demon Consuming Seal. **

**Next he used the Hakke no Fuuin Shiki, the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style in conjunction with the Shiki Fuujin, allowing my chakra to leak out to yours, and that is why I'm able to talk to you like this. **

**After his work was finished, he died, of course after saying a nice little loving good-bye to you, since the price that the summoner pays when he or she summons the shinigami is its user's soul. **

**And do you know what his last wishes were? Sarutobi was there, and he heard it. **

**He said that he wanted you to be hailed as a hero."**

The demoness paused, letting the information sink in.

**"…And of course, Kushina died a little later, mainly because she was in a near-death like state after I was forced out of her, and also because she used her own body along with Minato to protect you from my attack…you see, I didn't want to be sealed again into a **_human, _**let alone a** **new born **_infant._**"**

She finished, and then muttered, **"For what it's worth, sorry." **

Naruto was silent after he heard the story. It was all shocking to him. That he was the son of the famous and infamous Fourth Hokage, that someone called Madara was behind all this, and about his parents…

Millions of emotions swirled inside of him. Hatred and anger against this Madara for causing this mess, and disgust towards his father for sentencing him to a life that he didn't deserve, placing his faith to those no-good villagers. He almost wished that his father hadn't saved Konoha; that village didn't deserve his father's trust.

But at the same time he felt happiness, happy that he knew who his parents were, and that they had loved him. They hadn't abandoned him; blocking the attack from Kurou with their bodies were the facts that they loved him. And sadness that he hadn't been able to know them before they died.

Overwhelmed with all those feelings, Naruto bit his lip as he stayed silent, not knowing what to do. He wanted to have some time alone, in peace.

Kurou sensed Naruto's feelings, and spoke up quietly, **"Naruto…You should get some time to sleep. You must be tired, both mentally and physically. And I know that you want to have some time on your own to go over the facts that I told you…"**

Naruto nodded glumly, and stood up as he closed his eyes to go back into reality.

But he didn't miss the last comment from his furry friend.

**"Your parents loved you very dearly, Naruto." **

* * *

How was that? Was it pretty long? I hoped it was. Anyway, next time on: The Suggested Deal.

Tune in then!

Signing off, Minato4YellowFlash

PLEASE REMEMBER TO REVIEW!


	5. Chapter 5

Hello, everyone! I'm back with the next chapter!

**"Kit!" Demon speaking. **

_**'soon, Naruto.' **_** Demon thoughts.**

"Hey!" Human speaking.

_'Hey!' __Human thoughts._

_Thunk._

In a cave. Regular writing, duh!

_**"**_**Ninpou:"**_** Jutsu. **_

**Please, remember to review! **

I know, even if I say this, I'm sure like 97 percent of you guys don't, but just please, say one word, like 'loved it! ' or 'its good.' Something like that! Anythings fine, just write something, please!

And but the way, I can't do much on weekdays since I have school, so I'll probably only be able to post a new chapter every week on a saturday or sunday.

But of course, I do publish them on weekdays sometimes, if I have time…like this chapter.

* * *

**The Deal**

Naruto woke up the next morning with a sleepy yawn as he sat on the mattress…er, grass (he's out in the woods right now!) and stretched his stiff muscles, still tired from last night.

He hadn't slept at all, he just _couldn't_.

He blinked his half-open eyelids as he heard Kurou's voice.

**"Awake at last, kit?"**

"Oh, Kurou, I just got up, yes. How did you sleep?"

Naruto asked politely, but was returned with a scoff.

**"I don't sleep, brat. Bijus never do. I rest, but I don't sleep." **She even rolled her eyes to express her 'common sense'.

Naruto returned the offense with an I'm-innocent voice, "Oh, I never knew!"

He squealed in amusement. "So that's why you're always so grumpy! You should have said so, Miss!"

Kyubi growled at this comment and huffed, **"Go get some breakfast, flesh bag. Try catching those annoying fish with out my help!"**

Then he paused and said again, **"After that, come to your mindscape!" **

"Yeah, yeah…" Naruto stuck out his tongue out. "Like I need your help! I already have the tools you made for me!"

And so with that comment left hanging in the air, Naruto skipped jollily to the river.

He did the same as the day before, and after he caught two fish, he went back to the clearing.

He lit a fire with Kurou's help again and he roasted the fresh-caught fish.

While he bit at the cooked up fish on the stick and chewed, he mumbled to himself, but making sure that Kurou would hear.

"How long are we going to continue eating fish? If it goes on like this, I'm going to have a sick belly, and it's all your fault, Kurou!"

Kurou said nothing, but Naruto guessed that she was growling under her breath inside the cage.

He grinned to himself, and then quickly ate up the remaining bit of fish.

He cleaned the area before calling out to Kurou, saying that he was coming.

Then he sat down as Kurou had instructed him before, and opened his deep, oceanic blue eyes to see the familiar dark, wet corridor.

He walked through the pathways like he knew it on the back of his mind, and came to the cage where Kurou was …*cough*…resting.

Kurou opened a lone red-slitted eye as she saw Naruto coming in.

She had opened both of her eyes by the time Naruto sat on the floor, making a face as his pants got damp from the water.

Naruto looked up at Kurou and asked straightaway, "So…Why did you call me?

Kurou returned the young boy's look as he grinned, showing proudly her rows of sharp white teeth.

**"Well," **The Kyubi said slowly as if she was testing out the words on her tongue, **"I want to propose you a deal."**

Now this got Naruto's undivided attention. "A deal?" Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in thought, "What kind of deal?"

Kurou's grin got even wider, threatening to split her face into two.

**"It's a fare and square deal," **she assured, **"But I want to ask you something. What is your dream, or goal? It can be an ambition, too."**

"My dream?" Naruto questioned Kurou, then started out slowly.

"Well, after hearing about my parents and all…I…want to make them proud." He trailed off as he bit his lip, and then after a few moments of silence, his face brightened and shone of pure happiness.

"Yes. I'm going to make them proud. My dream is to make my parents proud of me!" He smiled.

"They put their trust in me as well a their love, and I ain't gonna to let them down! Maybe I'll become a kage of a village like my father! I also want to resurrect both of my clans to their former glory, and then prove the others like the stupid villagers my whole existence! I'm going to prove them wrong, that I'm not the 'demon' that they hate!"

He exclaimed, his eyes brimming with new-found energy.

Even the Kyubi was surprised at this, and she was speechless for a moment, but quickly regained her composure as she grinned foxily at Naruto,

**"That is an amazing dream, but aren't you forgetting something else?"**

She asked.

Naruto blinked at her question as realization dawned on him.

His face darkened a bit, and he replied bitterly, "Yeah. I can't believe I forgot about _him._"

The vixen grinned further.

_"Madara Uchiha. _That man, I'll kill him. He will perish at my hands. He is the enemy of all, a threat to the Shinobi world. And I will end him, for the sake of my parents and all the other people who have suffered!"

The last part came out in a dark tone, his eyes glowed, fists clenched with knuckles ghostly white.

The Kyubi shivered as she felt the malicious chakra, _her _chakra beginning to bubble inside of him, but quickly shook it off and laughed, showing her big, sharp canines.

**"Very good, kit! Excellent!" **She smacked his lips together gleefully.

**"Now, here's my deal. I will lend you my help in becoming stronger and achieving your goal; I can train you to be a strong shinobi just like your parents. And in return, I want to feel, see and hear what you do. And also, I want you to kill that Uchiha. And of course, with my help.**

**I know that you want to kill the Uchiha, and so do I. It's a win and win deal, don't you think?"**

Naruto didn't reply immediately. He pondered over the deal Kurou had proposed, and seeing that it would benefit them both, he made his decision. He trusted Kurou to do the right thing, after all.

"All right," Naruto straightened up, stretching out his hand as he smiled. "Deal accepted."


	6. Chapter 6

Hello, everyone! I'm back with the next chapter!

Sorry, this chapter is short, well really short, but please bear with it. I _have_ to put this before the time skip…

But don't worry, next chapter is going to be long again...

**"Kit!" Demon speaking. **

_**'soon, Naruto.' **_** Demon thoughts.**

"Hey!" Human speaking.

_'Hey!' __Human thoughts._

_Thunk._

In a cave. Regular writing, duh!

_**"**_**Ninpou:"**_** Jutsu. **_

**Please, please, like for the hundredth time, I'm begging you… remember to review! **

* * *

**Training Starts!**

It was dawn, just as the sun started to show it's self on the horizon.

All was silent and peaceful, until one young boy broke it.

**"Wake up, damn it!"**

Naruto literally jumped up, wide awake now thanks to the terribly annoying loud-mouthed fox.

"What?" He almost screamed as he snapped, "I was finally having a good sleep for once, and you ruined it!"

Kurou shot back in response, **"It was you who said that you wanted to start training at 5 in the morning in the first place! I told you yesterday that you wouldn't like waking up so early, and yet you insisted, caught up with all the excitement of training to be a shinobi!"**

"…"

There was a still silence.

"Oh, right," Naruto finally spoke up sheepishly, "Sorry, Kurou. I totally forgot about it. And about snapping at you, too. I was having a good dream of my parents."

If Kurou had a comment to say, she didn't.

She just gruffly muttered a small, _fine._Then he said to Naruto, **"Allright. We'll begin your training. But first you have to know how to control and harness you chakra effectively. So first of all, I'm going to start telling you about what chakra is." **

She paused for a moment, and then continued,

**"Chakra is something inside of you, so think it as a energy tank inside of your body. Shinobi rely on this energy to preform various jutsus, like ninjutsu and genjustu. I'll explain those to you later."**

She said quickly, seeing Naruto's curious and confused look.

**"So anyway, if you want to be a shinobi, you have to learn how to draw forth this energy. You have a lot more than regular humans, because your chakra coils have been big since you were a baby; It is one of the good parts of being a jinchuriki. But because your chakra amount is grater than others you will have a harder time controlling them. So anyway, I'll tell you how to release this chakra. First, this tank within you are separated into two, spiritual energy and physical energy. You have to draw both of them out and combine them in order to create chakra. **

**Feel the energy inside of you, it feels very warm and soft. Reach it, reach it, and…"**

Well that's the end of this chapter. I told you that it'll be short, didn't I?

* * *

And there's a time skip in the next chapter. Naruto will be 5 years old. Oh gosh, I forgot! There was a bother short chapter next, never mind the time skip. Next time will be about Konoha with Kakashi and Sandaime. And after that, the long awaited time skip! I'll tell you more about it next chapter!

Remember to review!


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys! This chapter is about Konoha with our favorite silver-haired cyclops and the old monkey!

Sorry about this short interception; I know that you guys want to know what happens to Naruto next, but I wanted to put a Konoha episode in. And don't worry, next chapter will be a regular, long-length one.

**"Kit!" Demon speaking. **

_**'soon, Naruto.' **_** Demon thoughts.**

"Hey!" Human speaking.

_'Hey!' __Human thoughts._

_Thunk._

In a cave. Regular writing, duh!

_**"**_**Ninpou:"**_** Jutsu. **_

**Review please!**

* * *

**Konoha**

"What?" Kakashi Hatake, the infamous sharingan wielder with silver gray, gravity-defying hair in an ANBU captain uniform roared.

(A.N. Whew! Long sentence there!)

"I'm sorry, Kakashi. Naruto has disappeared from the orphanage. I've asked the woman in charge, but she didn't say much. All she told us was that he disappeared on his birthday, October 10th. She said that Naruto didn't come back from the festival with the others…But of course, we already knew that, and when I found out about the mob and went there to investigate, there was nothing left of Naruto. I don't think he died, since the Kyubi would do anything to not let his host die. But most possibly, I think that he ran away."

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Fire Shadow (Hokage) concluded sadly.

"And why wasn't I informed of this before?" Kakashi asked, trying his best to keep his voice level in check.

"Well, I didn't want to you to worry. You just came back from a S-rank mission, and I knew that you needed some rest." He replied, truthfully.

"My well-being doesn't matter! I should have been informed of this before, right after I got back from the mission! He is my sensei's son! You know that he means a lot to me, Sarutobi!"

Kakashi finally erupted, unable to contain his anger as he flared up his KI and slammed a hand, hard on the Hokage's desk.

Sarutobi saw this and his eyes narrowed as he said in a warning tone, "_Hatake, know your place!"_

Kakashi visibly flinched as he bit his lip and bowed slightly, gritting his teeth, "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. I stepped out of my line, unable to keep my emotions in check. I will not let it happen again."

Then he slipped on his mask as he turned on his heel and started to go out the door.

"Where are you going?"

Sandaime's voice rang out, stopping him.

"Off to find Naruto." He replied curtly.

The Hokage grimaced slightly before saying, "NO."

"What?" The now Inu-masked (Dog) ANBU turned around and exclaimed in disbelief.

"No!" The Hokage's voice lashed out, "By the orders of the Hokage, I forbade you from leaving this village in search of Naruto! The best Inuzuka trackers followed Naruto's scent to the forest, but they lost it there, unable to find him. And as you know very well, after the fox attack 4 years ago, we're very low on shinobi, so I cannot let you go. These are _orders, _Kakashi."

Kakashi's widened eyes narrowed and his lips curled downwards in disgust.

_"Fine!" _ He spat, lacing it with as much as venom as he could place, _"I will follow you orders, Hokage-sama." _

"Sensei would be greatly disappointed."

With those final words, Kakashi disappeared with a swirl of leaves, the shunshin. Sarutobi felt the small breeze as Kakashi slipped past him, out of the window.

_'Probably heading to the memorial stone,'_ thought Sarutobi, as he leaned back on his chair and looked up at one portrait hanging from the side of the wall and whispered, _"Oh, Minato, I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry." _

* * *

It was raining.

After Kakashi had left the Hokage's office, he had quickly come to this place, where the memorial stone stood.

He bent down on his knees, and with his gloved fingers, he traced the names of those who were once so precious to him.

"Oh Obito, Rin, Minato-sensei…I've failed you all…" Kakashi whispered, choking on his tears as they continuously rolled down his cheek.

"I should have done better…he deserved better…I'm so, sorry…"

The rain continued to pour, and it seemed as if the sky was crying along with him.

* * *

How's that? Done at last! next time, its a time skip! Naruto's five years old now!

Check it out next time to find out!

Please review!


	8. Chapter 8

Hello guys! It's a time skip of one year! I promise you, it's going to be loads of fun! Anyway, keep on reading!

**And don't forget, **

**Review please!**

* * *

**Introducing Ipuudou's, Meeting an Uzumaki**

(One year time skip, Naruto: 5 years old. Shiraizumi* Town.)

A young boy with sun-kissed blond hair sat on the counter at Ipuudou*, slurping up his favorite food, ramen, at an overwhelming rate; ten gigantic sized empty bowls of ramen stood proudly beside him.

"So, what are you going to do today, Naruto?" Kai, the owner of Ipuudou Ramen Restaurant asked his favorite customer while boiling some noodles.

"Hm?" Naruto looked up from his noodles with his mouth full of ramen and after several chews, he answered, "The usual, I think. Training in the woods outside and finding a teacher who's willing to teach me swordsmanship, I guess."

"Well, I'm sure that you'll find someone! Cheer up, Naruto-kun!"

The lady waitress named Hitomi, who was also the owner's daughter chirped, joining the conversation as she leaned on the counter toward Naruto.

Naruto turned to her and grinned, "Thanks Hitomi-nee-chan! Who knows, maybe today'll be my lucky day!"

Then he slurped the last drop of his 11th ramen bowl and stood up, digging into his pocket to fish out some ryo. "How much?"

Kai saw this and waved a hand dismissively and grinned heartily, "Oh, don't bother. It'll be on the house today!"

Naruto's eyes widened and his agape mouth closed as he grinned back and exclaimed, "Thanks, old man Kai! You're awesome!"

The addressed owner grinned and Hitomi spoke up with a cheerful smile, "Anytime! Naruo-kun, you're our #1 customer, after all!"

"Hehe!" Naruto grinned and ran off waving good-bye.

"A nice little boy, isn't he?"

Silence followed.

"It makes me wonder why he doesn't say anything about his parents. They must be nice and polite people, just like Naruto-kun. But when it comes to the topic about his parents, he just avoids them. " Hitomi said to her father as she gazed to the direction Naruto had ran off to.

"Yes, indeed." Kai agreed.

* * *

Naruto walked along the street, humming happily, satisfied from devouring his fill at Ipuudou's.

He had been drowned completely in his happy thoughts that he even didn't notice the man walking in front of him from the other direction until he bumped into him.

_Thump._

The man was completely out of guard as he stumbled back in surprise, landing quite hard on his back on the asphalt.

"Oh, sorry!" Naruto apologized, "I'm sorry. Are you all right, mister?" He asked worriedly.

"It's all right." The stranger replied, agilely getting on his feet as he dusted off the dirt on his clothes.

He surveyed the boy in front of him, and when he registered the boy's features, his eyes opened wide and he gasped, one word escaping his lips,

"N-naruto?"

Naruto wheeled back in surprise when he heard the stranger he just met uttering his name.

"Why do you know my name?" the blonde asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.

Now it was the stranger's turn to be restless, as he stuttered, obviously flustered, "I-I heard your n-name in the streets. A shop keeper was saying your name."

"Oh," Naruto said, all of his suspiciousness forgotten, "You should just have said so."

Then, upon seeing the stranger still in the frozen-like state with his jaw dropped and eyes opened wide with shaky fingers, he arched an eyebrow quizzically, "What's wrong? What are you so surprised about?"

The stranger drew back a bit as he quickly replied, "It's just that I saw your blade and was surprised."

He said, pointing at the twin kodachis cross-strapped upon the boy's back.

"Oh, these?" Naruto questioned, as he swiftly removed both blades from their sheaths and held them toward the man to let him see it.

"What's so surprising about them?"

When the man had fully inspected the blades, he handed them back and spoke to Naruto in a high-pitch squeal, almost as if he was trying to contain his happiness, "You're from the Uzumaki Clan, aren't you?"

Naruto eyes widened in surprise and narrowed a split-second later, "What if I am?"

Though the statement was just a question, they both knew what it meant very well.

_How did you know?_

"Well," The stranger started, but they could both hear the nervousness in the man's words, "I know it sounds unreal, but I'm…"

The man gulped, and whispered in a low tone, "I'm from the Uzumaki Clan also."

Naruto froze. He stared wide-eyed at the complete stranger in front of him who just proclaimed to be his relative.

Sure enough, his hair was the custom Uzumaki red, just like Kurou had explained, but...

He could only utter two words as strength faded from him. "No. Way."

Part of him wanted so badly to hug the person in front of him, his only living relative, but another part couldn't bring himself to trust him. His life around people had only been lies, and now, out of the blue, this man comes to him and…proclaims to be his relative. He could be lying also.

Naruto glared at the man in front of him with an accusing look as he demanded, "Where's the proof?"

The man looked slightly taken a back; he probably hadn't expected such response come from his relative, and a young boy only 5, none less.

But he quickly regained his posture as he reached into his pack and grabbed out a scroll.

Naruto stared at the man's actions carefully, a bit curious what the man was going to do with a scroll.

The man, ignored Naruto's intense look and threw it, unraveling its contents which consisted of some brush-written characters, and after a few hand seals, he slammed his hands on the front-side of the scroll, pinning it to the ground.

Naruto's brow furrowed, and he braced himself of what was appearing as he saw a small cloud of smoke.

_Puff._

A beautiful snow-white katana appeared, and the stranger took it carefully in his hands, swiftly putting the empty scroll sealed shut back inside his pack hanging around his waist at nearly the same time.

He then held it toward Naruto who was awe-struck, and gestured for him to take it and have a look.

Naruto complied willingly, as he reached out both hands to grab it.

He bent his outstretched hands -that now held the katana- and looked at it, turning it around in his hands.

Then all of a sudden, he gasped, looking down at the engraving carved at the handle.

_An Uzumaki insignia, the crest of the deceased Uzumaki Clan. _

Naruto continued to stare at the swirl before blinking twice and handing back the blade gingerly to it's owner.

He stared at the man in the eyes, before softening them.

"You really are from the Uzumaki Clan, mister." Naruto smiled, stretching out a hand and introducing himself.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, at your service." He bowed slightly.

The man again stared at him again, in what seemed like surprise, and recognition.

Naruto tilted his head to the side and inquired, "What makes you so surprised, sir?"

The man froze for a millisecond before quietly shaking his head. "It's nothing, I was just surprised that Princess Kushina married to the late Hokage, Namikaze-san."

Naruto was surprised, but he didn't show it as he nodded his head in understanding.

"Yes, they were married. And I have to compliment, you figured it out really quick, about my parents. But I guess a man could calculate and figure it out. But I am also surprised that you recognized my father's surname. No one around here does."

"Well, I got letters from Princess Kushina all about her lover, Namikaze-san."

The man said, and when he was returned with a nod, he smiled with an awkward bow, "Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. My name is Arashi. Arashi Uzumaki."

Naruto grinned genuinely, "Lets go somewhere else to discuss matters further, Arashi-san. It's too noisy here."

He gestured at the chattering merchants and villagers walking by.

_And it's too easy for one to overhear. _He added silently.

The stranger named Arashi nodded and spoke, "I have a room in Shin-Sakura Inn*, and it's also protected by silencing seals. It'll be a good place to talk."

Naruto agreed, and the two headed to the Inn that Arashi had suggested.

It was fairly close from where they were, and they reached the place in no time at all.

When they went in, they were greeted by a mid-aged woman who was supposedly the owner of the inn.

"Hello there, Arashi-san!"

She welcomed him back, "You're pretty early today! And who's that cute little blonde there?"

"Oh, he's a relative of mine that I just met today by circumstance. Why don't you introduce yourself, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grinned at Arashi and then at the lady, and with a slight flourish, he said politely, "M' name's Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, pleased to meet you, ma'am."

The lady smiled affectionately as she heard the boy's polite yet cheerful way of speaking.

_'What a nice little boy,' _ She thought. _'so polite manners.'_

"Well then, Arashi-san," She said, "I must excuse myself. I have an errand to run."

Then she added, looking at Naruto as reached out a hand to ruffle his unruly blond locks.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Naruto-kun."

She smiled, and bent down as she gazed into his clear ocean blue eyes with her own amber ones before whispering a comment in his ear,

"You have such beautiful eyes, Naruto-kun. I'm sure that soon enough, you'll have cute little girls flirting around you."

Then she got up, and with a sly wink at the poor young boy, now blushing feverishly, she left the Inn, skipping and humming a tune.

Naruto stood there, unmoving as his mind slowly registered what she said. The words played over and over in his head, and he could just not stop blushing.

Face deep red from embarrassment, Naruto groggily looked up at Arashi who had spoken to him, "Let's get going, Naruto-kun."

He held out a hand and Naruto took it without hesitation, completely oblivious at what he was doing as his mind was still spinning around thanks to the lady.

They were already mid-way up the stairs when he suddenly snapped back into reality, and upon realizing he was holding Arashi's hand, he yelped in surprise before slipping his hand out of Arashi's soft grip and blushing hard once more.

Arashi was surprised at the sudden reaction that came from Naruto, but did his best to shrug it off as he smiled at the boy who had stopped in his tracks, cradling his right hand, the one that Arashi had held just seconds before.

"It's okay if you don't want to hold hands," He said, and beckoned for Naruto to come on. He smiled once more reassuringly.

It somehow made Naruto at ease; it reminded him of the smile that Sarutobi-jiji used to give him.

He cringed, as he shook his head to clear the memories his past life in Konoha.

When he recovered, he quickly sprinted up the stairs and caught up to Arashi.

They walked a bit and when they came across a door labeled '24', Arashi stopped, indicating that it was his room.

He turned around to face Naruto, and said to him,

"Have you heard of seals? The art of sealing; fuinjustus?"

Naruto shook his head in a _no. _Kurou had mentioned it briefly to him the time when they went to the ruins of Uzushiogakure (Naruto's clan's village), but she never went deep into the topic. He also wanted to keep Kurou a secret for now, anyway.

A brief look of surprise shadowed the man's features, and he asked again, "No? You haven't heard of them? We Uzumakis were great masters in sealing; that's what we were famous for, after all."

_That's what __we were __famous for. _

Past tense.

At the same time, a pained look appeared on Arashi's face, and Naruto knew in an instant that he was probably thinking of the past, when the Uzumaki Clan died out along with Uzushiogakure.

Naruto felt instantly bad, as he tried to light up the mood, "So can you tell me more about them? Is this one of the _'seals' _?"

He pointed at a small rectangular shaped paper with one big word: Seal written on it, stuck to the door along with some small squiggles.

Arashi nodded his head, and replied, "Yes, this is a seal that I made, using ink and paper. It's a barrier seal, allowing access to people with the exact same DNA as me; meaning only me, since I mixed my own blood in the task of making it. The ones that have the blood fusion are called _blood seals_."

He explained, and Naruto nodded, understood.

"So- uh…how do you open this thing?"

Naruto asked curiously, he really wanted to know. He didn't know why, but looking at works of seal art made him feel excited, and eager to learn everything about this fuinjutsu thing.

He guessed that it was in the Uzumaki blood.

"Oh, that's easy," Arashi answered, "Watch closely."

Naruto watched carefully as he was told, and saw Arashi biting his thumb with his teeth, successfully drawing some of his blood out. He watched further in absolute fascination as Arashi weaved through several hand signs and swiped his bloodied thumb on the piece of paper, smudging it dark red.

Then the red smudge started to spread in the paper, and when it covered the whole parchment, the seal glowed blue on the corners and with a faint _click_, the door swung open.

Naruto was dumfounded as he saw the unbelievable scene unfold before him, and almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

He spun around and in instinct, he started to get in his battle stance, but stopped abruptly when he saw that it was only Arashi.

He ducked his head in embarrassment as he blushed heavily, and his tensed shoulders relaxed a bit.

Arashi pretended to be oblivious to Naruto's actions again, as he smiled and gestured Naruto to come in.

Naruto quickly muttered a small _sorry _before stepping into the room. Arashi nodded, as he followed and shut the door behind him.

The first thing he realized when he stepped in was the seals. There was a seal on each side of the wall, four in total. What Naruto noticed was the difference from the earlier seal on the door - these seals had the kanji _quiet _ written in big letters - not the _seal _one that was on the door.

He guessed quickly that the words meant what each seal was used for, like the kanji _seal _meant to seal off the door, and presumed that this _quiet _was used as a silencing barrier so that no one would overhear or spy.

His calculations proved to be correct, for when Arashi caught Naruto looking intently at the seals, he explained exactly what Naruto was thinking, "These seals are put up to make a silencing barrier, Naruto-kun."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding, but on the inside he grinned madly.

He mentally sent a message to Kurou, _"Hey Kurou, aren't I smart?" _

He only received a roar back. **"Don't disturb me, you insolent whelp!"**

He cringed visibly, and unfortunately it did not escape Arashi's keen eyes.

"Are you all right?" He asked worriedly and bent down, looking at Naruto at the same eye-level.

Naruto was sweating bullets inside, and he bit his urge to yell back, _'Now look what you did! Arashi-san's suspecting something!'_

But on the outside of course, he kept his cheerful facade and he grinned as if nothing had happened.

"It's nothing, Arashi-san. It's just some disturbing memories from my past."

He quickly lied, and second later he bit the insides of his mouth as it sounded, so fake and hollow in his ears.

He waited, holding his breath, hoping that Arashi would buy it.

"Are you really fine?"

Arashi asked with some worried glint left in his eyes, and as soon as Naruto saw it, he cringed mentally; he felt so bad, lying to a man, a relative none less, who was genuinely worried about him.

"Yes, I'm really fine!"

Naruto chirped as happily as he could, and plastered a big, fake smile.

"Okay, then."

If Arashi suspected something, he didn't show it as he stood up and sat on the bed near the window.

He gestured for Naruto to have a seat on the olive-green sofa before him.

Naruto did, and eased himself into the comforting sofa, something that he hadn't felt in years.

It was Arashi who spoke up first, as he started, "Now I'm once again. My name is Arashi Uzumaki, and I come from the Uzumaki Clan just like you, a former ninja of the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides. I'm a traveling merchant, searching for someone to leave the Uzumaki Clan secrets and fighting styles in safe, good hands. I didn't want the Uzumaki Clan's fire to burn out, so I went from village to village disguised as a merchant. And now that I've found you, I think you're the best person for me to leave the Uzumaki Clan's future entrusted in your capable hands.

And now, why don't you introduce yourself, Naruto-kun? You're were obviously a born citizen of _Konoha_, but why are you out here, all alone? You're still 5, a young child for goodness…sakes..."

Arashi trailed off, taken aback upon seeing Naruto's azure eyes change dramatically just as he mentioned _Konoha._

Just a few minutes before, they were so full of light and happiness, but now…his eyes showed so much sadness and guilt, so much that it made him feel nauseous, but not only that, at the same time there was a glimmer of hatred deep inside the boy's twin orbs.

It sent chills to his spine.

Naruto then seemed to realize that Arashi was staring right at him in the eyes, and quickly averted his gaze as he hung his head.

The thick silence was tense in the air.

"I…" Naruto suddenly spoke up slowly and quietly, breaking the tense atmosphere as he whispered, making out a sentence, "I don't want to talk about it."

Then after a few moments of silence, he opened his mouth again. "At least…not_ yet_."

They collapsed into silence again.

It was Arashi who spoke up this time.

"We're both the last of the Whirlpool and Uzumaki," He spoke softly, "You can trust me. I want to help you out in any way I can. If you're not read yet though, maybe you should go home, wherever your place is, and decide whether or not you want to tell me."

Naruto looked up at Arashi, and this time, he saw a several emotions flickering in the boy's moist eyes.

_Guilt? Or was it…fear?_

"I'm going home for today…" He whispered, "I'm going to think about it overnight. I'll be back tomorrow, is it all right? …Arashi-nii?"

Arashi's eyes widened at the suffix.

_Arashi-nii…_ It felt weird, but nice at the same time. _Arashi-nii_, huh?

It brought a small smile upon his lips, and when he looked at Naruto, he saw that the boy was also smiling. Faintly, but yes, he was smiling.

He hadn't felt so much happiness since _that day_.

It made him feel so happy, seeing Naruto smile. It made him feel alive, and all the regrets he had made, forgotten for a moment.

"Sure, Naruto-kun. I'll see you tomorrow." Arashi smiled warmly with a softened gaze, and the next moment, Naruto had disappeared using shunshin; Arashi had felt Naruto slip past him, out the window.

Arashi slowly turned around and gazed out from the window into the direction Naruto had gone.

He smiled once more, and unknowingly reached for the white katana resting beside his lap and gripped it tight.

_My Kushina-hime…_

* * *

**How was that? Very dramatic, wasn't it? (laughs gleefully)**

**Anyway, I myself LOVED this chapter. I felt that I had written it pretty well.**

**And also my longest chapter I've written, I think. It took a whole day to finish it!**

**Now, what do you guys think of Arashi? Isn't it kind of suspicious, him appearing out of the blue, and recognizing Naruto on first sight?**

**Do you all think this is a coincidence? What things are Arashi hiding? Why does he seem to care for Naruto so much?**

**What is this _day _Arashi is talking about? Why does he have the brief pained look on his face, when Naruto thought it was because of the day of the destruction of Uzushio?**

**Why does he seem so close to Kushina?**

**All is going to be answered soon.**

**(though some of u might have a hunch. And keep them to yourselves if you do!)**

**words with an *:**

**the first part, of the ramen store Ipuudou? I tried making it like Ichiraku's. And while Ichiraku means a brief rest (happiness), Ipuudou means a big gust of wind, or something like that. It's an actual name and a fit name for a ramen store, just like Ichiraku's! And Shin-Sakura Inn means New Cherry blossoms Inn. Even shiraizumi, although i don't quite get what it means, all these names I've put are true names. Well, i have to admit, Shin-Sakura is not a true one, at least in my knowledge, I just got it from a train station near my school called Shin Sakura Dai.**

**Reviews please, I beg of you!**

**Until next chapter!**


	9. Chapter 9

Hey guys! I'm back again, yippie! Rise and shine, It's time for a new chapter!

Now, I think that this one is _epic_ long, so brace ya selves! (That's why it took so long to update. Sorry!)

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and don't plan to! **

seriously, do we **have** to write this every single chapter? Can anyone tell me?

**The Decision**

"Huff, huff, wheeze, wheeze."

Naruto woke up with a start, sweating all over and panting heavily.

He took several minutes to calm himself down as he breathed in and out deeply as possible, trying to relax his nerves.

It was the nightmares again. Only these times, Kurou didn't help him. He was left in that dark ally, screaming in searing agony as he continued to burn inside the flames.

And he remembered, there was this one time where Kakashi-nii was killed by the mobs when he tried to save Naruto from a close death.

Seeing his crumpled up and bloodied form, Naruto had cried. He cried for Kakashi between chokes and sobs, and wished for millions of times that Kakashi-nii had just left him to die. He didn't have to die all because of him.

And worse, the mobs had laughed cruelly when Kakashi died, and they all said that Naruto was the one who killed his beloved so-called brother.

They taunted that because Naruto was the demon, he was destined to kill anyone who got close to him, especially ones like Kakashi.

There was this other time where he saw Sarutobi-jiji within the mobs, dressed in a regular jounin outfit as he attacked along with the others.

When Naruto had asked him, crying, why he was doing this to him, he only replied, laughing maniacally that it was because Naruto was a demon.

He said that he would finish up the mess that the Yondaime had created by fault.

It had hurt so much. Physically, yes, but also mentally.

It broke his heart, and each nightmare left a deep scar in his heart.

The incidents of the past kept haunting him.

But Naruto wasn't that weak, and he did his best to overcome his nightmares, telling to himself repeatedly that it was just a bad dream.

And so, that was precisely what he was doing right now.

After he had calmed down somewhat, Naruto flipped onto his feet and brushed off some of the grass stuck to his clothes.

Yes, he was camping outside.

It felt better, and he felt at ease out in the calm woods alone rather than around many people.

Also, he didn't have much money to stay at a Inn, only some money that he had earned from helping people out using shadow clones, which was constantly used to buy ramen at Ipuudou's.

But he didn't mind it at all, he had already spent more than a year in the woods, and now felt like the they were a part of him.

And of course, he wasn't alone either, there were some other wild animals like squirrels and birds that sometimes wondered around his camping area, and there was also Kurou, too.

He snapped back into reality as he remembered yesterday's conversion with Arashi…san.

He had said that he would tell him his decision whether to tell him or not the next day.

Naruto bit his lip, pondering whether he should or not, all his appetite for breakfast long forgotten.

He hadn't been able to think about it the day before, as he had been too tired and as soon as he came to the woods, he had fell down, snoring away.

As Naruto wondered, it came to his mind that he should maybe consult Kurou about it.

"Hey Kurou!"

He called out to her.

"**What?**" Came the snappish reply, as usual.

"Well, I was wondering if telling Arashi-san is a good thing or not."

Kurou rolled her eyes when she heard Naruto, and scoffed, **"Really, you're worrying so deeply over something as simple as that?"**

"No, it's not that simple for me, Kurou!" Naruto almost yelled. "What if he won't like me, like most of the population of Konoha?"

Kurou slit-eyes narrowed and she growled, **"Look, I'm sure that you can trust this Arashi. Give it a try. He **_**is**_** your living relative, and willing to help you. Place your trust in him, and now go, don't bother me! I have something I have to do!"**

"You don't mind that I tell him about you?"

**"Yes!" **He growled irritatingly.

Naruto was silent for while, then he whispered, "'kay, then. I'll give it a try, Kurou."

Naruto jumped across the rooftops, and when he came to Shin-Sakura Inn, he dropped down to ground level, surprising a few people who were walking past by.

He walked in, opening the door and was greeted by the same woman as before.

He blushed as they met eyes, and doing his best to cool down, he greeted the lady casually with a small bow, "Hello, Ma'am."

The lady smiled warmly as she said, "Hello, Naruto-kun. Did you come to visit Arashi-san?"

"Uh, yes," Naruto replied, then cocked his head to the side, "Is he in?"

"Of course, dear. He said that he was waiting for your arrival." The lady said, "Now off you go."

Naruto grinned at the lady and said a quick _thank you _before lightly running up the stairs.

He walked down the hallway, and when he came to the door marked with the seal, he stopped and rapped the door lightly.

After several seconds, the door opened and Arashi's head poked out.

"Hello there, Naruto-kun. I've been expecting you."

He ushered Naruto inside, and Naruto sat down on the same olive-green sofa as before.

Arashi did too, and when they faced each other, Arashi asked, "So, are you going to tell me?"

Naruto didn't reply headway. But after a few moments of silence, he opened his mouth in reply. "Yes."

"…And is this room safe?"

"Yes, of course. I made those seals myself for this type of occasion."

Arashi replied a matter-of fact-ly.

"Okay," Naruto took a deep breath before continuing, "Promise to keep this a secret, okay?"

Arashi nodded his head. "My lips are sealed, Naruto-kun."

"So um, it goes like this…"

Naruto started telling his tale. He told everything, about how his life in Konoha was, and about Kakashi-nii and Sarutobi-jiji. He told Arashi about the day of his 4th birthday, and fleeing from Konoha. He told him about his true birthright, and the Kyūbi sealed in his stomach. Then he told him the truth about that day, and about the deal that he made with Kurou. Then everything that happened to his life after he fled Konoha, including his trip to Uzu where he obtained his kodachis, training by Kurou, and everything that had happened up until now.

In other words, he told him _everything. _

_Absolutely everything. _

When Naruto finished, they were both silent for a while.

Naruto was fearing that Arashi might hate him like the rest of the villagers despite the truth he told him, and Arashi on the other hand was at loss of words.

_'Why did Minato condemn his own son to a terrible life! How dare the villagers betray Minato and Kushina's trust! How dare they treat the Village's hero like dirt! What is Hiruzen thinking?'_

Those were _probably_ the thoughts running through Arashi's mind right now.

Arashi started to glower, and it was showing outwards, completely terrifying the blonde.

He looked at Naruto and saw the tears threatening to spill out of his cerulean orbs, and he inwardly cursed.

_Damn! I just made Naruto more scared!_

Arashi forced himself to push the angry thoughts away as he smiled fondly at Naruto.

"Shh…" He whispered soothingly and pulled Naruto towards him.

He hugged him affectionately, and whispered, "It's okay. I don't hate you for being the container of the Kyubi."

The words shocked Naruto to the core.

"Y-you…don't?" He whimpered fearfully, half-expecting for Arashi to lash out, calling him a demon.

Arashi softened his eyes and hugged Naruto more closer to him.

"No I don't, Naruto-kun." He said softly and soothingly, stroking Naruto's blond, untamed hair.

Naruto eyes widened and they started to waver, as he burst out crying in Arashi's chest, all the pent up emotions finally released.

All those tears he had locked up since that day spilled out.

Arashi smiled at Naruto, still stroking his sandy blond hair.

"There, there," He soothed him, "It's all right. Cry all you want. I'm here, after all."

Naruto, still having his head on Arashi's torso sniffed from between hiccups and tears, "You're not afraid of me? You don't truly hate me for taking away Kushina-kaasan from you?"

Arashi's eyes widened as he asked, "Why did you think that I would miss Kushina-hime?"

Naruto looked up finally, his face puffed up red from all the crying, " 'Cause when you spoke of Kushina-kaasan, you always said her name so fondly,"

He pointed out, "And you say, _'Kushina-hime'_. Why 'princess'?"

He asked, and Arashi saw his emotionally filled eyes now turning into curiosity.

"Well," Arashi replied scratching his cheek sheepishly, having a far-away look in his eyes as he averted his gaze from Naruto to look out the window, "We were childhood friends. And she was the heir of the Uzumaki throne after Kishin-sama and Mito-sama so we all referred to her as 'hime; princess."

"By 'we', you mean all the Uzumaki clansmen and the others of Uzushio?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Arashi replied, now looking down at Naruto still clung to his chest, "She hated that, you know. She always said she didn't want to be called 'princess' and all that, saying that she didn't do anything to deserve that title."

Naruto smiled at that, "So she was a good person."

Arashi nodded his head, "She was a very beautiful young child, with a kind, modest personality. All the people adored her."

Then he started to chuckle. "But she also had a very strong, rebellious personality. When someone disagreed with her, she would always retort back and no one could ever hope to win an argument against her."

Naruto started to laugh, too, but stopped when Arashi started to look sad.

Naruto guessed that he was saddened by the fact that Kushina had already passed away, all those years ago.

Arashi caught Naruto's worried face as he realized that he must have been looking sad, and he hurriedly changed the subject.

"Ne, naruto-kun. You said that you got those blades of your from the ruins of Uzushio, right?"

He asked, looking at Naruto.

"Uh, yeah?" Naruto nodded, confused. Why was he asking about it? "Didn't I tell you before?"

"So do you know about our home-country? Uzushio? Did Kurou tell you about it?"

Now Naruto understood where this was going.

He shook his head, and said, "Only that Uzu was destroyed sometime in the Second Shinobi World War."

Then he leaned forward eagerly. "You're going to tell me about them, right?"

Arashi nodded, and started out, still holding Naruto in his arms.

"Well, the Uzu no Kuni; Land of Eddies, otherwise known as the Whirlpool Country, was located in an island, off the coast of the Land of Fire, headed by the our clan. It is also where the Uzumaki Clan originates from. We were distant relatives of the Senju Clan, and as such, both were on good terms; an alliance that extended onto their hidden villages - Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure. And did you know? The shinobi of Konoha integrated Uzushiogakure's symbol onto their uniforms and flak jackets as well as on the shoulders of their uniforms as a sign of friendship and goodwill between the two villages, and continue to do so to this day, in memory of their friendship even years after Uzushiogakure's destruction."

"Wow!" Naruto breathed, "So Konoha had an alliance with us! And they took in our crest! I never knew we were so close!"

Arashi smiled and nodded, "Right? And it's quite and honor to have our symbols used in another village. Even if it's Konoha."

Then he continued, "So anyway, the members of our clan were very knowledgeable in the art of fūinjutsu. Like I mentioned before, seal making is also a part of fuinjutsus. Anyway, this reputation earned us renown and fear worldwide, but then it eventually led to the destruction of Uzushiogakure, and the rest of the Land of Whirlpools during the era of the Second Shinobi World War."

Then he sighed, looking down at Naruto, "You went to Uzu, right? It was in complete ruins, wasn't it?"

Naruto nodded, "It's really sad."

"Yeah." He signed once more, then continued in a somber tone, "That day of the destruction of Uzu, so many precious lives were lost. I remember clearly about that day,"

He paused, looking at Naruto.

"Do you want to hear it?"

"Yes please." Naruto whispered.

Arashi inhaled deeply before continuing, "The attack, or maybe we should say the _massacre_ occurred at night; joint forces of Kumo, Kiri, and Iwa attacked Uzu at nighttime, and even though we fought back fiercely, we started to lose. And that was when the elders told us to flee, to go seek refuge in Konoha when help came, and so I took Princess Kushina, who was only 9 at the time; I was 10 by the way, by her hand, and even though she was stubborn to go, we somehow managed to get away. We took shelter at a hidden cave near-by the whirlpools surrounding the island of Uzu, and after the attack stopped and the shinobi went away, we went back.

But there wasn't a person in sight, only us two standing in the middle of a village in complete ruin. There were bodies everywhere, all bloodied and mangled."

He stopped to take a deep breath before continuing. Naruto just kept a neutral face as he listened intently.

"After about 15 minutes or so, Konoha came to help, but of course, by then, everything was destroyed. All they found was one small girl standing onto of the ruins, shaking like a leaf and looking absolutely terrified."

He stopped, knowing that the question would come. And sure enough, it did.

"Wait," Naruto exclaimed, "Why was there only Kushina-kaasan? How about you?"

"Well, you see, a few minutes before the Konoha shinobi came, I told Kushina-hime that I wasn't going to Konoha with her. When she asked why, I said that if I went to Konoha with her, I would have to stay there forever, and that I didn't want to do that. And so, the Konoha shinobi only took her and left.

After I saw to Kushina's leave, safely at the hands of Konoha, _I_ left."

He finished up his story, and glance down at Naruto, to see how he was handling the information.

Naruto said nothing, and silence continued.

Then he finally spoke up quietly, "I don't really understand the whole event, because I wasn't there, but I still feel sad. You know, since they were part of the Uzumaki Clan, they were my clansmen/clanswoman, too."

Then he looked up with a smile on his face.

"But you know what? I'm going to start an Namikaze/Uzumaki Clan when I grow up. It's part of my dream, after all. I'll restore the Uzumaki Clan and bring them to the former glory they were once at! I'm going to make them, including my kaasan, proud of me!"

He exclaimed. Arashi grinned, and ruffled Naruto's blond hair.

"It sounds fitting, you know?" He said, "After the destruction, the royal heir of the clan appears and he wants to resurrect his Uzumaki Clan."

He grinned, "And the person is Naruto-kun." then his grin turned into a sly smirk.

"Or do you want to be called Naruto-oūji (Prince Naruto)?"

Naruto looked horrified as he quickly shook his head viciously.

Arashi burst out laughing when he saw Naruto's horrified look, causing Naruto to pout.

He then continued between chuckles, "Well, so anyway, one more thing. It's very important, too."

Then he looked down at Naruto as he swept the blonde's bangs to the side, and looked at him at the eye.

"Members of the Uzumaki Clan posses incredible longevity and life force. One notable case is that of Mito-sama, who lived before the founding of Konoha, to well into the term of the Third Hokage's reign. And this vitality was probably the reason Kushina-hime survived the extraction of the Kyūbi, though you said that she was greatly weakened, of course."

Naruto's eyes widened, as he nodded, "Yeah. Kurou also mentioned that it was because she was and Uzumaki that she survived the ordeal."

And then he grinned as he asked Arashi enthusiastically, "So I also have this longevity thing? And you too? Does that mean that we'll live longer than others?"

Arashi smiled and nodded, "Yup. Unless we don't get ourselves killed, of course."

"That's so cool!" Naruto exclaimed, "Uzumaki's are awesome!"

Arashi chuckled, and then asked Naruto, "So onto business, do you want to me to help you get stronger so that you can a achieve your dream? Remember, I was looking for someone to teach them the Uzumaki style fighting and sealing, so I would teach you gladly if you accept."

This perked Naruto up, and a split-second later, he was hugging Arashi while his head looked up, the most adorable puppy dog-eyes he'd ever seen staring at him eagerly.

Arashi blinked, surprised and a little freaked out as he grinned.

"So you want me to teach you?"

_Yes! _Naruto bobbled his head up and down viciously.

Arashi's grin widened further as he said, " 'Kay then, Naruto-kun. So, um, can you tell me the jutsus that you can preform? I want to know how strong you are."

"Sure!" Naruto replied, as if he was waiting eagerly for this moment.

"For starters, I can do all kinds of Kage Bunshins (Shadow Clones), thats in my affinity area. My elemental affinities are Doton, Katon, Suiton, and Fuuton, so-"

Naruto was cut off when Arashi exclaimed, "You already know your affinities? And on top of that, you have FOUR? You're only 5 for christ's sake!"

"Well, yeah," Naruto just shrugged it off, "Fuuton and Suiton are my primary ones; Fuuton from my tousan (father) and Suiton from my kaasan (mother).

I have Katon as my secondary from Kurou and Doton as my own."

Arashi's jaw dropped considerably.

He sat there on the bed, motionless for several moments, his mouth agape and eyes the size of saucers.

Naruto had to shake Arashi's arms to snap him out of it. (A.N: He's 5, so he's still short to reach Arashi's shoulders, right?)

"Arashi-nii? Arashi-nii?"

Arashi blinked several times before relaxing his stiff shoulders as he looked at Naruto who was on fours on the bed.

"Oh, sorry," He said, then stared at Naruto. "And I still can't believe it; how in the world do you have 4 elemental affinities already? Even most jounin have only 2 or 3!"

Naruto sat up, grinned and scratched his head sheepishly, "I guess it's 'cause I'm awesome."

Arashi face-faulted at that, and Naruto burst out laughing, pointing a finger at Arashi's awkward position.

Then, all of a sudden, Naruto made a pained look as he scrunched up his face and covered his ears.

It was Kurou. And she was mad.

**"It's not you who's awesome, It's me who did that for you, you dumb flesh-bag! I made some adjustments to your body and chakra coils so that instead of gaining affinities one by one as you grew up, you would get them all at once! And don't forget, I gave you that Katon affinity!"**

Naruto opened his tightly shut eyes a few seconds later, and stared right into the face of a very worried Arashi.

"Are you all right?" Arashi's clearly worried voice rained upon him.

Naruto quickly replied, "Yeah. It was just Kurou yelling at me."

Realization dawned on Arashi. "So before, when you cringed and I asked if you were all right, that was also Kurou's doing?

Naruto blinked. "Oh, yeah," He replied, "And this time she was yelling at me that it was her who made me able to use the 4 affinities."

Seeing Arashi's confused look, he explained further, "She said that she made some adjustments to my body and charka coils so that the affinities that I would get gradually when I got older are already be useable to me right now, even despite my age."

"Oh," Arashi replied in understanding, "But still, it means that even if Kurou didn't do that for you, when you get older, you would be able to use 4 affinities. That still means a great deal. I only have 2 affinities, and I consider myself as an elite-jounin."

Naruto scratched his head at the back sheepishly at the compliment as grinned, "I guess I'm great after all."

That earned a nice, deep growl from Kurou.

"Sorry, sorry." He hurriedly muttered a mental apology.

"So anyway," Naruto continued, "I can do the regular Kage Bunshin, Doton Bunshin, and Mizu Bunshin. Of course, I can do the Kawarimi (replacement), Shunshin (Body Flicker), Henge (Transformation), and Bunshin(Clone); the academy level ones without the usage of hand seals."

Arashi opened his mouth in surprise. "Wow, all of them seal-less? That's a pretty useful trick! No one, especially the Sharingan users won't be able to figure out your next move!"

Naruto grinned, "Hehe. When I got them done right, Kurou told me to continue doing them more until I got it mastered, done without using seals."

Arashi nodded in understanding, secretly praising Kurou for his great teaching method, as he told Naruto to go on with the other jutsus.

"And also I'm pretty good at chakra control, which I sucked at first because of my abnormal amount of chakra, and so I've mastered water-walking and tree-walking. And guess what? I can also do the water-fall walking!"

When Arashi heard this, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and whistle.

"Wow! Even most jounin can't pull that off, Naruto-kun!"

"Yeah. I'm pretty awesome, right?" He grinned, which in fact was stretched a bit too far, threatening to split his face in half.

Kurou grumbled at that, while on the other hand, Arashi just chuckled.

"Yeah, I got that all right," he said and asked, "Any more?"

Naruto nodded smiled. "Yup, there's more!"

Then he placed a hand, stroking his imaginary beard, looking as if he was thinking very deeply.

"Hm…Since my elements are those four like I told you…"

Then he brightened up, "Right! For Katon, I can do Goukakyuu (Grand Fire Ball), Housenka (Pheonix Flower), and Ryūka no Jutsu (Dragon Flame).

For Suiton, it's Mizurappa (Violent Water Wave), Suirou (Water Prison), and Mizuame Nabara no Jutsu (Starch Syrup Capture Field).

Fuuton is Daitoppa (Great Breakthrough) and Reppushou (Gale Wind Palm), Doton is Doryuu Heiki (Earth Style Wall) and Doro Gaeshi (Mud Overturn)."

Seeing Arashi's astonished look, he said, "Even if I can do a lot of jutsus for _my age_, as a ninja, it won't matter. I'm far from being strong. Those jutsus are only mainly C-rank and some B-rank ones."

"And…that's about it, I guess," Naruto concluded, "But also, when I do Kage Bunshin, I can also do the advanced version, Tajuu Kage Bunshin. If I put a lot of chakra in, I can make about 700 of them."

Now, this got Arashi's undivided attention.

"WHAT?" He choked, eyes the size of saucers. "You can make about 700, and still be _standing_? Are you serious?"

Naruto smiled innocently, and nodded. He absolutely _enjoying_ this. "Yup!"

Arashi was at loss for words. "H-how…?"

_'How is that possible?'_

Then realization struck him. _'Oh!' _

"I get it. It's because of Kurou, right? With your chakra reserves so large, it's not much for you."

Naruto grinned, "Yup. You figured it out pretty fast! It's one of the best things of having a snappy, over-sized biju."

That earned a threatening growl from Kurou.

Naruto ignored it, though he was grinning inside. Oh, _the fun _of teasing a brother-like figure of a biju!

He then looked up at Arashi.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you, being Kurou's tenant also grants me an enchanted healing ability," Naruto said, and seemingly out of nowhere he grabbed a kunai-like shaped weapon (the ones he made with Kurou's fire), and without hesitation, slashed it against his open palm.

"Naruto-kun!"

Arashi gasped, looking at Naruto with a horrified/frantic look as he shot up to his feet and grabbed the boy's wrist to inspect the wound.

"What?" Came Naruto's bored reply as he jabbed at the palm with his other hand. "It's fine, nothing to fret about. It's already healing, see?"

True to his words, the cut was already starting to heal, releasing a faint trail of vapor into the air from the wound with a small _hiss._

A few seconds later, it was fully healed without a single scratch.

"W-wow." Arashi gasped, awe-stuck by the miraculous display he had just seen.

He released his hold on Naruto's left wrist, and plopped back down on the bed, dazed.

"Wow." He breathed for the second time.

Naruto just sat there, with a faint smirk on his lips.

"Cool, isn't it?"

Arashi nodded dumbly.

"Yeah," A far away look appeared on Naruto's face as he gazed out the window, "I really owe a lot to her."

His gleeful smirk was quickly replaced by a warm smile.

Arashi silently watched Naruto with a fatherly smile on his face. _'I guess, I owe a lot to __her__, too'_

Naruto then suddenly broke off from his trance and turned to Arashi.

"What are we going to do now?" He asked.

"Simple," Arashi replied, then grinned. "You want some new clothes, _proper_ _shinobi wear_, don't you?"

The grin spread to Naruto's face as he, in return, grinned back. "Of course, nii-san!"

**Whew! How was that? It took like **_**days**_** to write this part down. But I think that I did a pretty good job. It's long, like you guys want it, right?**

**Review, please! (By the way, my sincere thanks to some of you guys who actually went far and reviewed!)**

**By the way, a little spoiler (mystery) : Why do you think Kurou's so snappy lately? And what does he mean, by, **_**'I have something to do!' **_**?**

**Anyway, see you later guys!**


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys! This is my 20th chapter! Congratulations, me! Anyway, on with the story…did any of you guys take my poll?

Reviews, please!

Disclaimer…I DONT OWN NARUTO FOR GOD'S SAKE! (finally erupted me…)

A.N: Guys, I'm so sorry! You know, about messing up Kurou's sex all throughout the story? I feel very bad right now. Somebody kindly pointed it out, and I fixed it. I still can't believe I did something so stupid! But anyway, now it's fixed, guys! Kurou is a _female_ in this story.

* * *

**Going Shopping**

_Clang, Clang!_

The bell rang, signaling a customer's arrival.

The door opened, and two figures stepped in.

One seemed like an adult, and the other was very little, probably around 5 or 6.

Matsuri looked up and when she saw the two figures, she quickly stepped out from behind the counter and headed towards them.

"Hello! What do you need today, sir?"

She welcomed the two in her regular verse, and when she caught Arashi's figure, she blinked.

Then exclaimed in a new found happy sing-song voice,

"Oh, Arashi-san! What do you need today?"

Naruto, looking from the side raised his eyebrow.

_'So Arashi-nii and this lady know each other. I guess he must have come here before.'_

Arashi smiled and answered, patting Naruto's head as he did so, "I need some shinobi wear for him."

"Oh, okay!" She chirped, and then crouched down to Naruto's eye-level.

_'There it goes again…'_ Naruto groaned inwardly, _'I hate it when they have to crouch down to see me! It makes me feel like a helpless little kid!'_

"Hey there, little guy. My name is Matsuri. What's yours?" She smiled and asked.

_'Gyah*! Little guy? Oh well, at least she's nice…' _He thought, _'But again, everyone's nice to me…But I like that smile of hers! It's reassuring!'_

"Hm? You okay, little one?" Matsuri cocked her head when she received no answer.

Naruto snapped back into attention and straightened up, before answering in his polite tone with his slight classic bow, "Oh, sorry. Um, m' names Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, pleased to meet you, ma'am."

Matsuri widened her eyes a bit, and then looked at Arashi, then back at Naruto again.

"By any chance, are you guys related or something?"

Naruto grinned at this, and chirped, now tugging at Arashi's leg. "Yup! He's my nii-san!"

Maturi blinked. Once. Twice.

"But you're hair color is obviously different, and isn't Arashi's too big at age to be your nii-san?"

She couldn't help but blurt out. Then, when she realized what she had just said, she quickly covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes widening.

"Sorry…"

But the damage had already been done. When Matsuri looked at Naruto, she saw him depressed, looking down at the floor with tears threatening to spill from his ocean blue eyes.

Silence engulfed the three.

Arashi looked certainly uncomfortable, as he spoke up, looking sheepishly at Matsuri, "Um, he's not my otouto* by blood, but he is from the same Uzumaki Clan as me, and he likes to refer to me as 'nii-san'. And he's an orphan, so…he's really sensitive to that topic, you know?"

Then he patted Naruto on the head reassuringly, "You okay, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto bit his lip and sniffed, "yeah…"

He hated showing his weakness in front of people, but this time, he just couldn't help it. He wanted so badly to make Arashi his 'nii-san', but the lady, Matsuri had just simply stated that it clearly wasn't so.

Matsuri, on the other hand, felt terrible when she heard what Arashi had said. She had just crushed a little boy's heart! Wanting to make up for it, she spoke up, hoping to light up the conversation.

"Um…You wanted shinobi wear, right? I'll show you what we have." She said, and Arashi nodded.

"Please then, come this way." She walked towards the area that held kid's shinobi wear, making sure that they were following.

She stopped when she came to the place, and waved her hand around, gesturing the mound of clothes both piled and hung.

"So, what kind of clothes do you want? There's plenty to choose from!"

Naruto looked up, and as soon as he laid his eyes on the scene, he gaped in wonder. _'Wow! So much to choose from!'_

Arashi smiled and patted Naruto's shoulder.

"Anything's fine. Choose your clothing!"

Naruto looked up at Arashi before dashing to the clothes. He started rummaging around, looking for the clothes that he wanted excitedly.

Arashi and Matsuri both watched Naruto busily looking around, and they both wore smiles on their faces.

Matsuri spoke up,

"Naruto-kun's such nice little child. And cute, too. I'm kind of jealous of you for being able to be his brother. He adores you."

Arashi merely smiled further.

A few minutes later, Naruto came up to them, looking as if he had just run several laps.

"Got them!"

He grinned at Arashi, and held up the clothes he found proudly.

They consisted of a two pair of shorts, t-shirts, and a pair of warmers in his right hand, shuriken holster, a pouch, a pair of gloves, and shinobi sandals in his left.

The shorts were both plain white and knee-high, while the t-shirt was a high-collared light orange t-shirt with broad white lines running through the shoulders to the sleeves, and the other was a plain navy, also high-collared one. The warmers were white, long enough to stretch from just above the elbows down to below the wrists, and it had metal pads attached to with navy blue straps.

The shuriken holster were the classic navy type with the white bandages to strap it on, and his open-toed sandals were of the same color. His gloves were also fingerless navy ones, with metal hand guards on the back for protection. The pouch was a classic cream-colored one.

Arashi looked at them, and complimented, "Nice choice. But why _orange_?"

He asked curiously, though the clear distain in his voice was easily recognized.

Naruto pouted, "They're not _orange_, they're awesome orange! I love the color, it's the same as Kurou's fur!"

Then he stuck his tongue out and made a face. "And I'm not letting you take them away! Nyah~!"

Matsuri burst out laughing when she saw Naruto's face, while Arashi just chuckled, keeping his _always cool _attitude.

"It's okay, if you want it." Arashi said, and then turned to Matsuri. "Can I pay for these?"

Matsuri nodded and took the clothes, then she went to the counter and rang up the register.

"6500 yen*, please."

Arashi nodded and took out the money as he laid it on the counter.

Then, looking at Naruto, he suddenly remembered something. _'Oh, I completely forgot those two things!'_

"Naruto-kun!" He called, and waited for Naruto to come over.

"Yeah? What's up, nii-san?"

Naruto sprinted towards him.

"Well, I was wondering, do you want to have the Uzumaki crest sewn on the t-shirts?" Arashi asked.

Naruto gaped, and replied excitedly, "Really? We can do that?"

"Well, yes," Arashi answered, "So do you want them on the back?"

Naruto bobbled his head up and down viciously in a _yes_.

Arashi chuckled, and then said, "'Kay then."

Arashi turned to Matsuri and requested her to put on the red Uzumaki swirl on the back.

"The Uzumaki? Your clan?" Matsuri asked, and then reached out to a cabinet and took out a thick book.

"Let's see…A red swirl, you said? From which shinobi country?" She flipped through the pages of the book.

"Uh…" Arashi trailed off, finding himself not being able to answer to the question.

The Uzumaki came from Uzu, but Uzu was just a small country, and even though they were strong in strength, they had perished in the Third Shinobi War, which was a long time back, and Arashi doubted that she knew of Uzu. But again, if the book was an old one (which seemed so from the worn-out look), it could work.

"Um, Hi no Kuni?" He replied.

"The Fire Country?…Okay, we'll try that…" Matsuri mumbled as she flipped throughout the pages until she came to a page that read **'Hi (Fire)'** in big, bold letters.

"Hm…U…" She flipped through a few pages until she found the 'U' section. "Let's see, Uzumaki…"

She scanned the page, and after a few seconds later, she gave out a triumphant shout. "Found it!"

Matsuri pointed at the red swirl proudly she read, "Located in Uzu…"

Then she looked up and gave Arashi a questioning look. "Uzu? Uzushiogakure? I've never heard of it…"

"Well, Uzu's long gone already…" Arashi replied weakly.

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow, but when she saw that Arashi didn't look like he wanted to converse on that topic any further, she decided to drop it.

"Well, okay then, I'll put the swirl on the t-shirts, and have them ready by tomorrow."

Arashi nodded in acceptance, and asked, fishing out his wallet, "How much more?"

"That will be 1000 yen."

"All right." Arashi handed the money, and then glanced over his shoulder to see Naruto just walking away.

"Naruto-kun! Not yet! I need to ask you something else!"

"Hm?" Naruto stopped in his tracks as he looked back. "What now, nii-san?"

Arashi pointed at the two kodachis that hung from Naruto's back with an obi (ribbon) and asked, "What do you want to do with them? Do you want to continue holding them like that or do you want to try out a new way?"

"I…don't know. I mean, they _are _really annoying; it makes me harder to move, but its cool showing it off!"

Arashi face-palmed at that.

"You only keep them out to _show off_ ?" He asked incredulously.

"Uh…yeah?" Naruto replied, this time somewhat weakly.

"You know, if you were showing it off too much, someone might want to steal it. They'll probably underestimate you because you're just a kid, and…"

He started to trail off as he registered what he would have said.

Naruto grinned, and finished up the sentence for him. "…and they'll end up at the hospital."

Arashi looked flustered, as he quickly replied with a faint scolding tone to it, "That's not the point. What I'm trying to say is that a true ninja shouldn't show off too much. It could cause consequences."

Naruto looked bored as he said back, "a…nd?"

"Well, I was wondering if you would want to use a different method to store your blades. A fūinjutsu thing," Arashi said.

That perked up Naruto's interest.

"Something like the way you store them? In the scroll?" He asked.

Arashi cocked his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, not…exactly. But I guess in a way, yes. I'll make them just for you."

Naruto's eyes shone in excitement. "Really? Awesome! I'll use that, then." He exclaimed.

Arashi smiled and with that matter settled down, he turned back to see Matsuri giggling at their conversation, holding out a bag with the materials that Naruto had chosen without the two shirts.

"Here you go, Arashi-san, Naruto-kun."

Matsuri held out the bag.

"Thanks." Arashi took the bag, and then asked Naruto, "Do you want to carry it? It's yours now."

Naruto smiled sweetly before replying, "No thanks, nii-san. You can carry it, that's what a older brother does, after all. You're the example."

Arashi's eyebrow twitched, and he replied, doing his best to imitate the sickly sweet voice Naruto was using to reply, but failing quite miserably.

"Oh, so I'm the example? I get it, you want me to choose what you want and need next time we go shopping!"

Even though the imitation was not perfect, it was still very good.

Now it was Naruto's turn to be intimidated as he spun around to face Arashi, growling. "No. I do that myself." He said through gritted teeth.

Arashi merely grinned slyly as he stared defiantly back.

And so, the competition began. It _was_ quite funny if you watched it from afar; A small kid and a grown-up facing each other, engaged in a fierce staring contest.

After a few minutes, Arashi sighed exaggeratedly as he broke off from the staring and ran a hand across his straight red hair.

"Ah, since I'm the older brother here, I should just step a side and let my foolish little brother do what he likes, I guess. It's the duty of an older brother to make a good example, anyway."

Naruto's brow twitched dangerously as he gritted his teeth and huffed, hands folded tightly before his chest.

Matsuri just watched from behind the counter, giggling away.

Naruto pretended to be oblivious to the giggling as he turned around on his heel and started to head out to the door.

"Let's get going, _nii-san_."

Arashi laughed contemptibly, satisfied from his win as he said goodbye to Matsuri and followed Naruto out the door.

Arashi walked calmly, smiling at Naruto was on cloud nine, skipping idiotically. Somehow, as soon as they left the shop, Naruto had calmed down from his fury and started to look happy. Arashi guessed that it was because he got _awesome _new clothes, ones that he _wanted_.

Yes, he was happy that now Naruto had regained his usual happy tone, but…it was just too much.

It caused many civilians walking down the same street to stare at the happy boy with either curiosity or surprisement, which was starting to make Arashi feel very uncomfortable.

He looked at Naruto who didn't seem to care one bit about the stares at all, and sighed.

Arashi led Naruto throughout the complicated streets, and a while later, they came to the shop they wanted.

It was a weapons shop, and the show windows proudly displayed various types of weapon projectiles such as shuriken, senbon (needles), ect.

They walked in, and an elderly man greeted them warmly.

"Hello, sir! My name is Higuchi. What can i help you with?"

In response, Naruto and Arashi introduced themselves, and also told the man what they needed.

"I would like 100 kunais, 50 shurikens, 50 senbon needles, one pack of food pills, one pack of smoke bombs, an appropriate amount of ninja wire, 50 explosive notes, 50 sealing tags and scrolls each, both blank and written along an ink bottle with a brush."

Higuchi was surprised by the amount the customer had requested, but what intrigued him most was the last order.

Even though he knew that to inquire about the customer's request was an unacceptable conduct for a shop keeper, but he couldn't help but ask,

"Arashi-san, I have to admit, I am a bit curious about your uncommon request for the blank scrolls and ink. Why is it that you order them?"

"Oh, Higuchi-san," Arashi replied, "It's because I'm pretty good at seals, in making them. And I also wanted to teach Naruto-kun here."

He said, patting Naruto's head in an affectionate gesture.

Higuchi's eyes widened an inch, as he exclaimed mentally, 'So he's a seal master! They're quite uncommon these days…"

Higuchi nodded his head outwardly in understanding, and now that his question was answered, he wasted no time as he gathered up the orders.

"Here you go, Arashi-san." Higuchi said as he placed the orders on the table in a neat pile.

"That will be 8400 yen, please."

Arashi took out his wallet and counted the 8 _1000yen _bills and 4 _100yen _coins before handing them to the shopkeeper.

Higuchi accepted them placed them in the cash register.

He looked up at Arashi and Naruto and asked while eyeing the orders.

"How are you going to carry them? They're pretty heavy!"

Arashi smiled at this, and said, "No worries."

Then he took one of the blank scrolls piled on the counter and scribbled something on it very fast using the ink and brush.

"Watch carefully." He said to the fascinated two.

Arashi grabbed the some of the kunai from the pile and and dropped them on the empty circle-shaped blank spot in the middle of the scribble-filled scroll.

They disappeared with a poof.

Both Naruto and Higuchi were awe-struck by the display. Higuchi was not as surprised as Naruto, since he had seen the storage scrolls in action before, but none the less awed by the scene of having the storage scrolls _made_ right before his eyes and then put into use. Naruto, on the other hand, was absolutely astonished and stared at the now clean scroll in amazement.

"Wow." Naruto breathed, and then exclaimed, "Awesome, Arashi-nii!"

"It's cool, isn't it?" Arashi smirked, "Don't worry, I'll teach you how. These are called storage seals, and they're the basics of fūinjutsu."

Arashi then quickly got another scroll and did the same, creating 6 of them in the process within less than 5 minutes.

He continued to place the weapons and everything he ordered in each of the scrolls, and then labeling them after scrolling them closed, showing what each scroll held.

The one that contained the 100 ordered kunai had the (japanese) character '_kunai_ ' written with ink on the front, easily seen as they were scrolled into the round cylinder shape. There was also the other 5 labeled, _shuriken, senbon, food pills/smoke bombs/wire, explosive notes/tags/scrolls._

Then he used a bigger sized scroll and made another storage scroll as he deposited all 6 scrolls inside, successfully sealing everything, organized in a single scroll, then bundled it up.

Then he looked up and fixed his gaze on Naruto.

"All right, what I'm going to do now isn't needed, but it'll be some useful knowledge for you, so watch." Arashi said.

Naruto nodded, and watched in confusion and surprisement as his eyes followed Arashi who bit his thumb, and then smeared some of his blood across the edge/opening of the scroll. He went through a series of hand signs in a blur, and Naruto proceeded to watch, now his eyes full of fascination as he saw the smeared blood starting to increase it's mass, bubbling and thickening up, and when Arashi finished, the blob of blood hardened and came out like one of those wax seals.

Arashi smiled ad held it up for Naruto to see. Higuchi also joined in, peering from the side.

"See?" he said, "This is called a blood seal. It only allows me, and people with the same kind of DNA, like if I had a son, he would be able to open it just like myself. It's similar to the seal I have on the door."

Naruto nodded, absorbing the information, feeling that his thirst to learn fūinjutsu had gone up a notch again.

"Well, then," Arashi clapped his hands, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts. "Now that we have the things we need, let's head out to the woods, ne?"

_Training at last! _Naruto nodded viciously, and exclaimed in a squeaky voice, just barely being able to contain his excitement.

"Yeah!"

Arashi chuckled, and the duo waved goodbye to Higuchi as they headed out the door. Destination, _forest_.

* * *

Hey! I just updated this chap's new version. I don't have the slightest clue why I posted an incomplete chap, but it was there! My eyes bugged out, literally.

So now, guys, let me tell you...**The old version of 'Going Shopping' was incomplete! The one that ended when they exited Matsuri's shop. It was supposed to continue to Higuchi's weapon shop, as it is now! **

****So, sorry guys!


	11. Chapter 11

Hey guys sorry for the delay!

Disclaimer: I _don't_ own Naruto.

And this chapter's name is kinda lame and too long, I know that. But I couldn't think of a good name~! *author whining*

* * *

**Naruto: The New Training Menu, Arashi style!**

Naruto walked down the street, jumping up and down, unable to keep still at the mention of training. He _was_ training with Kurou daily, but still, he had found it to be pretty boring, anyone would, if your teacher was literally _inside_ your head.

He tugged at Arashi's pants and asked when Arashi looked down upon him, "Ne, nii-san. I'm itching to go to the forest! Walking takes too long, can't we run?"

Arashi shrugged his shoulders at that, "Well, I guess we can. But I don't see the point-"

He stopped short when he felt Naruto bolt pass him like a bullet, leaving only a cloud of dust at his wake. Arashi was unable to calculate what had happened, and he stared, his mouth opening and closing.

A few seconds later, the answer settled on him. _He shot to the forest as soon as I said yes…_

"W-wait up!"

He shouted into the direction Naruto had took off to, and dashed after him.

"Ha, ha, ha*," Arashi panted, out of breath, as he finally stepped came into the view of the woods.

He was taking deep breaths when he heard some shrill laughter from above, and he jerked up to see Naruto standing on a branch, grinning like a madman.

He shot a glare at the laughing blonde and complained stiffly between breaths, "Don't go too fast, Naruto-kun*!"

Naruto cocked his head in a questioning manner and asked innocently, "You're tired already? Gosh, and I thought that you said your skills match of an elite jounin!"

Arashi glowered, and instead of answering, he just muttered several words under his breath, _"Stamina freak."_

Naruto's eyes widened at this and clutched his heart in a mocking way, "Excuse me? Stamina freak? I'm so hurt, a Arashi-niisan!"

Then he placed his hand on his chin, as if pondering over something.

"I wonder what's next?" He bent low and squatted on the branch, peering at Arashi, "Hmm?"

Arashi glared daggers at the boy and growled under his breath as his eye twitched irritably. "Cheeky brat!"

Naruto merely grinned, waving off the offense, as he jumped down onto the ground before Arashi. "So, when are we going to start?"

Arashi fixed a glare one last time before shoving his hand into a pouch hanging by his waist, and pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to Naruto.

Naruto blinked as the paper was shoved into his hands, and he eyed it warily, "What is it?"

Arashi grinned and gestured for Naruto to open it. "It's a training routine that I conjured up for you."

Naruto brightened and complied without objection as he unfold it, skimming through the contents.

"All right," Arashi addressed Naruto who was busily sticking his nose into the paper, and began to explain, "Wake up at 6, sharp, then wash up and dress, eat a quick breakfast, and meet here at 7 to begin your training."

He paused and looked at Naruto who glanced up for a brief moment, nodding at him to continue, "First comes the warmups. Do the regular training, you know, the push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and squats, 50 times each. 50 laps around the forest…"

He trailed off when he saw Naruto looking quite bored, as if the training menu was easy as pie for him. He grinned wickedly to himself before crinkling his eyes and smiling sweetly, which, in fact, looked suspiciously similar to a certain cyclops, and said cheerfully, "Don't worry, my cute little munchkin, if it get's too easy for you, we'll be raising that number to 100, then 200!"

Arashi chuckled in amusement as he saw the blood instantly leave Naruto's horrified face, and savored the moment, mentally taking a picture of it.

Then he decided to play around with Naruto more, as he suddenly looked up to the sunny blue sky with a finger on his chin, taking a thinking posture, and a few seconds later, he clapped his hands in delight as his face lit up and he grinned, Cheshire cat style.

"Oh, that's right!"

He looked down at Naruto and smiled sweetly once again, sending shivers down the poor boy's spine, "I totally forgot, that's not all, we still have the weights!"

He chirped away happily, taking out a piece of paper, seemingly out of nowhere, and dangled it before Naruto's confused gaze and said,

"These are weight seals. They work like the regular training weights, except they're much more useful. You apply this seal on your body, wherever you like; they channel the weight all over your body, and then you channel chakra from your coils into the place where you placed the seal. The more you channel, the heavier they'll get. It's the same when lessening the weights, too. You can take them off whenever you like using a fūin release, which I'll teach you about later, and when you want to empty the heaviness of the weights, just empty the chakra in the seal."

Arashi couldn't help but chuckle, watching Naruto's face turn into fascination and awe by the explanation as he smirked to himself. Oh, how he was going to _enjoy_ this.

Arashi smiled and handed the seal tag to Naruto. "Here, want to try it?"

Naruto bobbled his head up and down ferociously, his eyes brimming of eagerness. He took the tag, almost like snatchedit out of Arashi's hand and placed it on his right shoulder after rolling up the sleeves.

Then something astounding happened. As soon as the piece of paper touched the surface of the skin, it glowed bright blue before the paper _itself_ melted, like molten lava and was swallowed into the skin, as if it was actually water on tissue paper.

A split second later, the characters reappeared on the skin, imprinted clearly.

Naruto gasped loudly, mouth agape as he breathed, "Wow! It's…almost like a tattoo, niisan!"

Arashi's corners of the mouth turned upwards slightly in a smirk as he explained further in an amused voice, "Yup, I designed it like one, and this way it won't be taken off easily, whether its by force or not." Then he paused and said, "Also, this way it won't be teared off or broken, since no one can tamper with it, as its embedded on your skin."

"Cool! You're so smart, niisan!" Naruto looked up at Arashi with…was that stars in his eyes?

Arashi smirked further and then gestured at the seal on Naruto's arm. "Don't you want to try it?"

Naruto blinked. Then his face lit up in realization. "Of course, I want to! Ugh, how I completely forget about that?" He slapped himself on the forehead.

Completely oblivious to Arashi sweat dropping, Naruto grabbed his right arm, placing his left hand on the bicep and looked at the imprinted seal. He concentrated as he proceeded to insert a nice amount of chakra into the seal.

As he felt the chakra flowing through his chakra network into one concentrated spot; the seal, he started grinning to himself as he felt his body getting heavier and heavier. But that triumph feeling only lasted a few seconds, for the next thing he knew, he was flung at the ground on his back, hard.

_Thump._

"Ow!" Naruto yelled at no one particular as he tried to get up into a sitting position. Key word: _tried_.

"Huh?" Naruto uttered in bewilderment, as he found himself not being able to lift himself up. He couldn't move an inch, even his head refused to budge!

"Why can't I-"

He stopped short as soon as realization hit him, -he had placed too much weight on the seal, and thus having his body too heavy- and he glared daggers at Arashi, who had the nerve to be looming over him, laughing hysterically.

This continued for a few moments before Naruto yelled at Arashi, "Help me up, damn it!"

Arashi continued to chuckle as shook his head and replied, "No, you should be able to get up yourself. Remember what I told you about the weight seals before?"

Naruto scowled at the reject, and he scrambled his mind for the answer that would help him out. _What had Arashi said before?_

A few moments later, his scowl deepened as he remembered, vaguely about what Arashi had said in order to decrease the heaviness. How could he have forgotten something as simple and important as that?

He glared at the seal from the corner of his eyes, -he couldn't even twist his head to the side to look at the bloody seal- and closed his eyes as he willed the chakra to go back into his coils. He sighed blissfully as he felt the chakra recede, the heaviness on his body lessen. He continued doing so until he felt that it was enough, and he staggered to his feet with some difficulty.

"Whew," Naruto breathed in relief as he straightened up somewhat, and then he swiveled his head to the side, glared menacingly as the seal.

Arashi chuckled, watching this event unfold from a few feet away.

Now, this caused Naruto to use Arashi as his glaring toy instead of the seal, making Arashi sweat drop.

Naruto finally softened his icy glare after a few moments as he sighed and hobbled towards the trunk of a nearby tree, sliding down onto the ground.

He forced his head up as he looked at Arashi and asked tiredly, "Whats next?"

"Oh," Arashi said, "let's see…where was I?"

"…Right!" He snapped his fingers, his face brightened as continued, "So we're going to use this seal the whole time when you train…"

He suddenly trailed off as he started to grin. "On second thought, you're going to be having the weights 7/24!"

**(AN: For those who don't know, 7/24 means 24 hours times 7 days, literally meaning all the time, nonstop.)**

Naruto eyes widened as he scowled deeply, "No way in hell I'm going to have this all day!"

Arashi merely smiled at this, his eyes crinkling into upside-down 'U's', which was, in Naruto opinion, a rather creepy smile.

He sighed for what it seemed like the hundredth time and grumbled underneath his breath, "Fine. Can we go on now?"

"Of course, little fishcake!" Arashi chirped -once again earning Naruto's icy glare- before settling into a serious tone.

"All right, so after you finish the warmups, you can train with regular weapons. Let's see, how good are you with shuriken, kunai, and senbon?"

Arashi asked Naruto.

Naruto pondered over for a moment before answering, "Well, I'm pretty confident in my abilities in shuriken and kunai, but I don't think I can do the senbon. I've never tried it before."

"All right, then. Care to show it to me?" Arashi asked, unsealing the scroll with a swipe of blood from his thumb. He spread it open on the ground and did several hand signs before the 6 scrolls appeared with a _poof. _He then reached for the 3 scrolls that were labeled, "Kunai, shuriken, senbon."

He opened them, making the mounds of weapons appear on the scrolls. He reached for one kunai as he sprinted towards the several trees surrounding them and slashed gashes upon the barks.

"Here," Arashi handed Naruto 8 kunai, and gestured at the places he had just marked, "Pin them in the spots I just made."

"'Kay." Naruto shrugged his shoulders and accepted the knives. Then he grinned at Arashi, "Watch how I'll pin them in dead accuracy! I'm great at these stuff!"

Arashi nodded in reply, "Of course, Naruto-kun." Naruto, satisfied by the reply, bent low on his haunches as he suddenly sprang up, chakra pumped into his legs as he spun mid-air, all kunai hitting the spots nicely.

Naruto collected himself from the jump as he straightened up and turned to face Arashi, grinning form ear to ear. "Wanna see shuriken next?"

"Sure!" Arashi answered, and leaned back upon a tree to watch as Naruto got into his position again, now holding shuriken between the knuckles.

Naruto looked around again for the second time at the spots where he had scored, and instantly re-memorized the spots. It had to be a little off from the kunai, so that the weapons would not collide.

He smirked in confidence before crouching low again, his legs braced for the jump, as he sprang up the instant he channeled the chakra into his legs. He spun like before, striking at all the spots, with dead accuracy. _Thunk, thunk, thunk._

His feet touched the ground gracefully before he straightened up, looking at Arashi for his approval.

"Nicely done, Naruto-kun!" Arashi clapped lightly, causing Naruto's ears to flush slightly pink.

"Uh, thanks!" Naruto grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, I can see that you're pretty good with the shuriken and kunai, so keep practicing so that you can perform them for more longer distances, including the hard blind spots. For senbon, I doubt you can throw one properly; they're really hard, so we'll start practicing with them from tomorrow. You know the secret to the Shadow Clone Jutsu, right? So we'll be using your clones to speed up the process, too." Arashi said. "Any questions?"

"Well, I do have one," Naruto spoke up, "why do I have to practice senbon? They look pretty useless to me, as they look rather light and flimsy. Won't shuriken and kunai be better for shinobi?"

"Well," Arashi started to explain his reasonings, "while kunai and senbon are much more useful when killing and such, senbon can be used to temporary paralyze animals and humans. You know, like when you don't want to kill a target, just un-arm them or capture them, senbon will come in handy. They can be also used for medical purposes, too."

Naruto's twin orbs widened at that, and he exclaimed, "That's so cool! I'm so gonna learn how to use senbon!"

Arashi chuckled, and then started to continue. "After you've trained with the weapons…no, actually, you can just have the clones practice while you train in other areas. But for the senbon, you might want to do them yourself. Anyway, so after you're finished with the weapon training part, -we'll do that until about 8 o' clock- we'll move onto ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. I can help you increase your abilities and knowledge in them, so that you can add more arsenals into your jutsu library. Then we'll do fūinjutsu-"

He was abruptly cut off as Naruto suddenly jumped and latched his small body onto him and stared at him with stars in those big, charming eyes.

"You'rereallygonnateachmefūinjutsu?" He shouted gleefully in a non-stop manner, obviously unable to contain his excitement.

Arashi smiled at him, and fluffed up his blond hair a bit. "Of course. Didn't I promise you before?"

Naruto grinned further, threatening to spilt his face in half as he exclaimed, "Thanks, nii-san! I'm gonna study real hard, it's a promise!"

Arashi smiled warmly at him, "I'm sure you will." Then he peeled Naruto off him before sitting down. "Do you want to hear the rest of the training menu?"

Naruto nodded viciously, not bothering to look into his paper as he continued looking at Arashi, probably forgetting all about it.

Arashi complied happily as he started again, "So after that, we'll do kenjutsu, since I'm sure you want to actually use your kodachis. You'll pick it up in no time. Then after that…" Then he paused for a dramatic effect as he looked Naruto straight in the eye before continuing.

"…comes medical ninjutsu."

Naruto gaped at him, disbelievingly.

"Iryou ninjutsu*?" Naruto somehow managed to choke out the magical words. "You're really going to teach me Iryou ninjutsu?"

"Um, yes." Arashi replied, a lone brow cocked in a questioning way, as he found himself somewhat bewildered. Sure, medic type shinobi were pretty rare because of the need of near-perfect chakra control, and getting taught in that field was pretty nice, but what was the reason for Naruto's happiness? He already had the healing ability from the fox, anyway.

Naruto's eyes widened further, as he latched himself onto Arashi for the second time, grinning away, "Thanks, aniki*!"

Then Naruto averted his gaze as the he suddenly looked up at the bright cerulean clear sky. He spoke softly,

"You know, I've always wanted to know healing ninjutsu. Even though I posses Kurou's healing ability, I still thought that healing my body myself was pretty neat. I'm very fascinated by the way my wounds heal all the time, so I wanted to prod further into that area. You know, like maybe become a medic? And there's also the fact that it should come useful when around comrades. I think its kind of unfair that I get to heal and others don't."

"Oh," Arashi replied, now knowing the cause of Naruto's interest in medical ninjutsu, "Thats great! I'm no medic myself, but I'm still pretty familiar with it. I'll do my best to teach you."

Naruto smiled, now looking directly at Arashi.

Arashi felt the corners of his mouth starting to turn upwards slightly as he broke off into a bright smile that mirrored Naruto's. Naruto's smile was contagious, yes.

"All right," he found himself saying, "I suppose you're tired with everything that happened today, so how does 7 at here tomorrow sound? I'll pick up your clothes that we ordered on the way to here, and I'll also bring that storage seal I promised you for your kodachis. 'Kay?"

Naruto grinned at the mention of training, his new clothes, and the special seal Arashi was going to make for him, and bobbled his head. "Roger, nii-san! See ya tomorrow!"

Naruto waved good-bye and leaped out of the clearing. Probably heading out to Ipuudou's, Arashi thought, seeing the direction the blonde had taken leave to.

It brought a smile at his lips as he thought about the little bright bundle of sunshine, and he began forming out a sentence on his lips, self-consciously. The words were soon swallowed, as quickly as it had come, lost into the depths of the now darkening forest.

_He's so much like you, Kushina-hime._

* * *

**Hey guys, how was that? I'm really sorry that it took a while, no, a very long time for me to post this new chapter. By the way, I want to say sorry that I had to give out that in Chapter 10, because of my stupid mistake…Anyway, thanks for all those story alerts! **

**Now, I wanted to explain a bit about the words I wrote with an * at the end. **

First of all, **'ha, ha, ha'** means 'huff, huff, wheeze, wheeze…'(panting) It's used for irregular breathing, like when out of breath in Japan. I figured that since 'Naruto' was a Japanese anime/manga, and I'm a Japanese myself, I should put it that way. Some of you who already knew, just a reminder.

And 2nd, **'aniki'** means brother in Japanese, like the word 'nii-san', except it's more carefree, like saying 'bro' instead of 'big brother' or 'brother'.

I put it there once while all the other parts refer to Arashi as 'nii-san' because I wanted them to bond more.

And last of all, **'Iryou ninjutsu'** it means 'medical ninjutsu' in Japanese. You know, it's really funny how they say 'ninjutsu' which is Japanese instead of the english translation 'ninja techniques', and they say the 'medical' part of 'medical ninjutsu' in English. Since they say 'fuinjutsu, kenjutsu, genjutsu…' they should put medical ninjutsu in Japanese, too. As Iryou ninjutsu. So basically, I wrote both because I wanted other people to know. That's all!

And by the way, I think that most people out there think that the term Arashi refers Naruto ( '-kun' ) is used for people they love, like when those fangirls squeal, referring Sasuke as their 'Sasuke-_kun_.' But that isn't the case. Although it is also used for those kind of purposes, they're also used when older people address those younger formally (politely). It's basically like 'Mr.' used when referring to people. So taking out the 'kun' actually means that the people are getting more into a friendship; family bond. Not necessary _love_, like in this case. Please take that in mind! I don't like it that much when people think that 'kun' is all about love and romance. And by the way, I don't mean to offend or criticize, but such words like 'Naruto-koi' and 'sochi' don't exist in Japanese. I've searched hundreds of dictionaries (…all right, maybe a couple…) and asked my parents and all, but everything concluded to this, "the word 'sochi' doesn't exist in the Japanese world!" And '-koi', while there _is _such a word, it's meaning is kinda different. 'koi' means love. (most ofmu might know this) Think of it this way: Do English speakers say 'Naruto-love?" Putting 'love' at the end of someones name? Okay, it might be used sometimes like 'sweet heart' but it isn't correct grammar, as far as my knowledge goes. In Japanese, it isnt, anyway. And guys, please don't be mad at me...I don't mean offense. 'Kay?...

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me!

P.s I totally forgot. Did I tell you this? 'Yen' is the current currency in Japan, approximately equivalent to 'cent'. (In the American currency, I don't know about other currencies, sorry!) So what Matsuri said, '6,500 yen, please.' it translates as approximately $65. It may be a little expensive, but its shinobi wear (with everything from t-shirts to shoes), and shinobi get quite a lot of money doing missions, anyway. Though, now that I think of it, it _might _have been a bit too expensive. (admits sheepishly)

Well then guys, please review! I'll try to update as soon as possible!

Happy that she has successfully completed and posted her new chapter, _Minato4yellowflash _is signing off!


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys! Long time now see! I'm not dead, see?**

***Hehe* (I always wanted to try that…) Sorry I took so long to update. It's 'cause I was caught up on the exams and homework at my school. But now that it's nearing summer, I think I'm gonna have some time~**

**Anyway, here's the story! Enjoy! Again, I'm really, truly sorry, everyone!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. For goodness sakes, **_**I don't own Naruto!**_

…**yeah, I know. The title is so **_**lame**_**~ But bear it, please, 'cause I couldn't think of any other! Ah, it's always so hard to name a chapter…**

* * *

**The First Day of Training, A Sibling Bond**

Naruto leaned back on the tree, eyes closed and arms folded across his chest as he waited patiently for his newly-found brother to appear.

"Hey. Do you think nii-san's gonna be here soon enough? It's already been several minutes past 7."

Naruto whispered quietly to his tenant, currently lying lazily behind the gigantic bars.

**"…He'll probably appear any minute now. I don't take him for the type to be late."**

Kurou answered in her usual indifferent, uninterested tone.

"I think so too." Naruto murmured quietly back.

Then as if on cue, Arashi made his appearance with a _puff _of smoke and a swirl of leaves, hands held in the classical ram sign for shunshin, Leaf style.

"Hello!" The red head smiled and chirped, "Sorry for the tardiness!"

Naruto drew back a bit, surprised at the sudden appearance of Arashi; he hadn't expected for him to come via body flicker.

"Oh," Naruto blinked and straightened up, "uh, hi!"

Arashi smirked slightly, and cocked his head to the side. "Surprised?"

Naruto scowled, and once again found himself to be folding his hands before his chest, huffing slightly as he answered in a slightly annoyed tone, "Of course not. Why should I? I just didn't expect you to come by shunshin."

Arashi returned it with a smile, his eyes eerily crinkled up, "Aha. So you admitted it! You _were _surprised, after all."

Naruto puffed his cheeks as he retorted instantly, nose held high in the air. "Did not."

"Uh-uh. Oh yes you did~!" Came Arashi's waggling, playful reply.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he started to come up with a retort, but suddenly his eyes opened wide in realization.

"Hey!" Naruto pointed an accusing finger at Arashi, "you could have used shunshin, yesterday! That way, we could have gotten here much faster!"

Arashi blinked twice as he digested what Naruto had said.

"Oh," he replied after a moment, "that's true. We _could_ have used shunshin."

Naruto retorted back in his ever-so accusing tone, "Then why didn't you?"

Arashi cocked his head slightly sideways as he scratched the back of his head, blinking innocently.

"Dunno. Guess it didn't come to me. Sorry 'bout that." He replied with a smiling face, not looking the slightest apologetic.

Naruto sweat dropped at that, but quickly regained his composure as he straightened up and asked Arashi, "We kinda went sidetracked, but why were you late? It's not that I minded it, but I'm just curious. Were you late 'cause you were fixing up my special seal or something?"

Arashi nodded his head. "In a matter of fact, yes. I was doing some last minute work on it. And then after that I had to go pick up the clothes, too."

Naruto was fully grinning from ear to ear now.

"Hey, hey," he jumped up and down, unable to contain his excitement. "Where's the clothes? Where's my seal? I wanna see 'em!"

Arashi chuckled at the blonde's enthusiasm rolling off him, and reached into his faded olive green pouch hung around his waist; the one he wore all the time, and drew out a carmine red scroll along with two pieces of paper.

Naruto keen eye caught it as he almost started to squeal at the sight of it. _My lovely seal!_

Arashi smiled at Naruto and handed him the scroll. "Here you go. Your clothes! You can wear them now, if you want."

Then he realized that Naruto was completely ignoring the scroll held out to him; his eyes were glued on to you-know-what.

Arashi narrowed his eyes as his slowly lips curled up into a small smirk. _A small tease would be nice…_

"Hey Naruto!" He drawled out, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts of the seals. "Tell you what, I'll give you the seals _after_ you've dressed. I really want to see how you look in them, you know? I bet you'll be handsome."

He asked as casually as he could, emphasizing the word _after_, completely ignoring the horrified look of Naruto's that soon turned to pleading, with glee.

After a few moments of a glaring competition, Naruto finally submitted with a huff as he held out his hand in an impatient gesture. "I just have to wear them, right? I'll do it in a jiffy, then."

Arashi handed him the scroll, but before he had a chance to speak, Naruto jot off to the forest, disappearing from sight immediately.

* * *

After a few minutes, Naruto leaped out of the clearing, grinning away, fully dressed in the outfit that Arashi had bought him yesterday.

He spun slowly, showing off Arashi his new looks. "How is it?" He asked, his voice lacing with the enthusiasm that was not seen before.

Arashi grinned and ruffled up Naruto's blond hair as he stopped the spinning, and said in an approving tone.

"Great, Naruto. You look really handsome!"

Naruto blushed at the compliment, and then he looked at Arashi and asked, "Can you make a small puddle using a water technique? I want to see my reflection!"

Arashi okayed with a nod as he flashed through several hand signs without warning, and brought his hands at his mouth, spewing out a small amount of water.

"That was a watered down version of a basic suiton jutsu, and since there isn't any water source around here, so I was only able to make this much. But it's okay, right? you're only using it as a mirror anyway."

Seeing Naruto nod, he gestured for him to take a look. "Hurry, before it dries up."

Naruto grinned and stepped forward to take a look. He couldn't help himself and broke off into a wide grin, admiring his looks. The clothes really looked cool on him, especially the red Uzumaki swirl on the back.

His blond hair matched perfectly with the maple orange-colored T-shirt, and the white cargo shorts - maybe they were too white, but it still looked pretty good, matching with the white lines on running down his shoulders-. The navy shinobi sandals really did the job, making him look more shinobi-like, and lastly the gloves! Oh, how he loved them! He flexed his fingers smugly, his eyes glued onto the navy gloves all the time. The open fingers made it really easy to use his hands, and it also felt comfortable…

Naruto eyes widened a fraction as he realized that he was missing _that_. He took out a kunai from his shuriken/kunai holster and gripped it tight as he placed the sharp edge on the metal pad of his gloves. This action alerted Arashi as he peered down at Naruto to see what he was doing.

"What are you doing, Naruto?"

Naruto looked up briefly before looking down again, "I'm adding something to it. Watch."

He closed his eyes for a moment as if he was concentrating deeply, and a second later, they could both hear a slight buzzing sound coming from the kunai tip, as it glowed blue lightly.

Arashi's eyes widened, as he gasped, "Wind chakra? What, are you going to carve something to it?"

Naruto nodded, and he placed the blue buzzing kunai tip on one of the metal hand guards. He slowly moved it in a swirl-like shape, and Arashi soon realized what he was intending to do.

The two watched -well Naruto was more like concentrating on making it neat- as the wind chakra cut into the metal like knife on butter, and a few moments later, Naruto proudly held a neat Uzumaki crest engraved on the pad. "Isn't it nice, Arashi-nii?"

Arashi just nodded dumbly, and smiled. "Yes, very nicely done, Naruto-kun. Are you going to do the same on the other one?"

Naruto shook his head in a _no_, as he grinned, "Nope, something better. I'm going to engrave the Namikaze symbol next," then he looked up at Arashi, "How's the Namikaze crest like? I don't know, so um, do you know?"

He admitted a bit sheepishly, and he looked up at Arashi for a reply.

Arashi smiled as he slowly shook his head in a no. "Yes, I do know, but it's really complicated and hard to draw. I don't think you can do it on those."

Then upon seeing Naruto's forlorn expression, he hastily added, "You should do the same Uzumaki crest on the other one, too. It'll go along nicely with the swirl on your back."

Naruto nodded with a grin, all his sadness long forgotten as he gripped his kunai tight again and channeled wind chakra. He did the same thing he had done on the other metal hand guard, and held up both hands proudly in display when he had finished.

Naruto grinned, and Arashi smiled.

"So, ready for your seals?" Arashi asked casually.

Naruto's eyes practically glowed like the sun as he nodded viciously. "You bet I am!"

Arashi grinned, and handed Naruto the seals. "It's the same as the weight seals, like a tattoo. Try it on you wrists, where you can take them out easily!"

Naruto happily complied and took one of the seals, looking curiously at the complicated brush strokes for a moment before placing the paper on the back of his wrist. The paper glowed blue and melted like before, leaving the characters imprinted on the skin.

He took the other piece from Arashi and then placed it on his other wrist.

After he was done, he held them out -imprinted on the back of his wrists- for Arashi to inspect. "So, what do I do now?"

Arashi smiled as he started to explain. "All right. So these seals are like storage seals, they store your blades inside, and when you want to use them, you can take them out. So basically, when you activate the seals with you chakra, the blades will appear in your hands, since you placed them on the wrists," He paused for a second before continuing, "But I'm sure that you'll want to make them blood sealed too, so I'll tell you how to do them."

Naruto's eyes danced with glee as he grinned widely. Arashi was actually teaching him how to perform _the_ blood sealing!

"First, wipe you blood across the seals, in the place that has "_ken*_ _(sword)_" written in the middle of the circle. You see them, right?"

Naruto nodded in affirmative as he glanced down at the seals. "Yup, I see them."

"Good. So after you've done that -hurry before the blood dries- do the hand seals _i, inu, tori, saru, mi (boar, dog, bird, monkey, snake)_ and grab your wrists so that your hands cover the '_ken_' part. They'll glow blue after that, so don't freak out and hold them in place until the light (chakra) dissipates. Got it?" Arashi questioned Naruto after he finished his explaining, wanting to know that Naruto got it before allowing him to do the process.

"Yeah, I'm surprised it's pretty simple, Arashi-nii!" Came Naruto's bouncing reply.

Arashi sweat-dropped, but then quickly composed himself as he calmly raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then why don't you try it out, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto gave Arashi his trademark grin before lapsing into seriousness. "All right. Here I go, nii-san."

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, concentrating on what he was going to do, and then with surprising speed, he brought both of his thumbs at his sharp canine-like teeth and bit in, drawing blood out. He swiped it on the seals, first the left before proceeding to the right, and then flew through the instructed hand seals, muttering each sign, and when he brought his hands together in the _mi _seal and finished, he grabbed both his wrists before his chest and and smirked.

_"Chi fūin! (Blood sealing)"_

The seals glowed blue for a few seconds before diminishing, and Naruto let go of his wrists with a satisfied grin.

"How's that, aniki?" He proudly showed his wrists that now contained a new character at the center, just above the _ken._

It read, _Chi (Blood)_.

Arashi smiled in approval. "Nicely done, Naruto-kun. I can see that Kurou drilled you in the hand seals very well."

Inside Naruto, a huge grin half-sadistic revealing rows of sharp, crystal white teeth appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Naruto shivered mentally, feeling Kurou's grin somehow, before quickly shaking off the feeling and smiling up at the red head in appreciation.

"Thanks! And yeah, I really think think so too." He replied, looking up at his brother with a genuine smile.

"All right, that's one part done, so now seal your kodachis inside," Arashi said, and grinned. "I think you have a good idea how to seal it up, too. You saw me do them before, so go on and try them out."

Naruto nodded happily, an overjoyed grin plastered on his beaming face, as he hastily took off his kodachis loose from the red obi* strapped on his back and placed them with care on the grassy ground. He flipped his left wrist outward, so that his seal faced upwards to the sky, then bent down, and grasping the crimson colored hilt of one of his kodachis, he placed the blade on top of the seal and grinned.

_"fuin (seal)!"_.

Naruto's grin widened further as he watched his blade disappear with a small puffof smoke, sealed away.

"Awesome!" Naruto felt compelled exclaimed out loud, causing Arashi beside him to grin.

"All right, now for the other one. And by the way, when you want to take those blades out, the hand seals are the same as the blood sealing, except the last _mi (snake) _turns into a _tori (bird)._ " Arashi said.

Naruto's cerulean eyes sparked as he was told how to actually activate the seals, and he nodded his head as he proceeded the same steps as before. The second blade disappeared in a puff of smoke a second later, and with that done, Naruto and Arashi exchanged looks.

Arashi: "Ready?" Naruto: Nods. "You bet."

Naruto broke off into a cheshire-like grin, and while still maintaining that smile, his hands moved in a blur- drawing out blood with his Kurou-like teeth, smudging the blood on the center circle _ken, _and flying through the necessary hand seals: _i, inu, tori, saru, tori. _

When he completed the sequences of hand seals, ending with a perfect _tori_ and releasing his hands, a surprise came: an intense amount of chakra forming, bubbling in both his hands before they flashed lightly for a split-second, only to leave- his beloved pair of swords, resting smugly in his hands.

"Wow…" Naruto breathed in wonder as he weighed the swords in his hands, just to check wether they was real or not. Of course they were real, but Naruto could not just help but confirm. It was an astounding experience, after all. Naruto looked up to his teacher/brother in admiration as he asked,

"Nii-san, the way my swords appeared in my hands… it wasn't the regular type of summoning ninja tools, wasn't it? If my memory serves me right, you said something about storage seals appearing with a puff of smoke, not mattering wether its a summoning type or a storage one. …Right?"

"Yes, that's right, Naruto-kun." Arashi smiled approvingly at him. "I'm a bit surprised that you figured it out, though, but then again, you're not a regular child, are you?"

Naruto shook his head, grinning. "Nope!" He replied, popping the 'p'.

Arashi laughed, and eye smiled. "I know you are. But anyway, to tell you the answer, I actually tweaked the seal a bit for the better, because as you know, regular ones produce a cloud of smoke, which, in my opinion -and I think that you'd share it too- is quite annoying, and it isn't quiet either, so for a shinobi, I thought it wasn't convenient. So, thats the reason I changed it. And well, I've been tweaking seals here and there for a while so that they benefit me, so I guess you could say that I'm pretty used to it. I've made these 'my version' of seals before, too, you know?"

Naruto's ocean orbs once again found themselves to be widening in awe as he regarded his brother in a new light. "Wow…you're amazing, nii-san!"

Arashi smiled as he bent down ruffled Naruto's blond hair. "Thanks for the compliment. So, what do you say?"

_"Huh?" _Naruto blinked, not really understanding what Arashi was getting at. Then realization dawned on him. One by one, in fact.

"Oh, I really love them! They're great! And…uh…_oh!_ Thanks so much for making them for me, Arashi-nii!"

Arashi grinned, and patted Naruto lightly on the head before straightening up. "You're welcome, otouto."

Naruto's eye's widened again as he registered what Arashi had said. '-_otouto _(little brother)."

Naruto's mouth plucked into a surprised 'o' slowly began to change, morphing into a soft genuine smile, his formerly shocked ocean pools now overflowing with gratitude.

He couldn't help himself and before both of them could comprehend what had happened, he jumped tightly onto his brother, making Arashi topple over and land on the ground with unconcealed surprise evident on his face.

Naruto froze for a split-second, registering his actions before his shoulders relaxed again and he continued hugging his brother. A tear rolled down Naruto's cheek as he whispered softly to Arashi, "T-thanks for calling me little brother… Thanks for everything…"

Arashi smiled and kept silent, but allowed Naruto to embrace him, and continued to stroke the blonde's hair.

After a few minutes, the Naruto pulled back his head from Arashi's shoulder and asked eagerly, "So, what are we going to do next? Some real training?"

Arashi smiled at Naruto's sudden change in attitude, and chuckled. "Of course. Remember the training routine I told you yesterday? We're going to do that, so get on running! Today I'll go with you, so let's go!"

He pushed Naruto off him lightly and stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothes as he started to jog. "Aren't you coming? You're going to be left behind if you don't!"

He laughed teasingly at Naruto who was still standing in the same place, and gestured for him to come.

"Do I _have_ to do the training _with_ my weights?" Naruto exclaimed, desperation evident in his voice.

Arashi merely arched an eyebrow in return. "Didn't we go over that yesterday? Of course you are, little brother. Now come along like a good boy!"

Naruto huffed, showing his displeasure, but none the less reached down for his kodachis that were lying beside him and after storing them safely into the seals, he ran after Arashi.

"Wait up nii-san!" He somehow caught up with Arashi who was still jogging in a light pace, stumbling along the way and breathing heavily as he did so. Arashi laughed as he saw him, _the _stamina-monster having trouble at running such a small distance. Naruto scowled at being laughed at, and sped up his pace a bit more, not caring at all if it was making his breathing _more_ irregular. Arashi laughed again, a clear note ringing in the breezy spring air and then he smiled, keeping his genuine smile in place as his eyes stayed fixated upon Naruto's small body trying his best to keep up with him, and he kept on smiling, and smiling.

The morning sun smiled too, smiling brightly as it watched over the two said siblings, but in her mind, they seemed to be more than that- like a family, a loving father with his son...

* * *

**How was that? **

**Wasn't the last pat mysterious? You know, I've placed these kinds of foreshadowing back in the other chapters, too. I wonder if any of u guys figured this out, or have a hunch? Well, anyway, I want to say...****  
**

**I'm truly sorry everyone, that I couldn't update sooner. I hope I haven't failed you. So extra thanks to all you guys that support me! Followings, favorites…they all count! **

**And to those new guys out there, you know what to do! It's easy as pie, just one click on that friendly looking bottom below!**

**Thanks to all of you. I'm sincerely sorry for the wait!**

**Minato4yellowflash,** **signing out. I'll be sure update the next chapter soon!**


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